<p>hoedown,</p>
<p>I am suggesting that some schools use more of thier endowment toward the general fund. I am not advocating that the endowment shrink only that the escalating size of the endowments could/should be used to keep tuition costs down more. Further, more could be done to decrease the cost of class/course delivery. </p>
<p>Let me cite one example to help illustrate my point. I have 2 sons, one in college, one in high school. The college student was looking for a Linear Algebra class that he could take over the summer. The prices ranged from $1800 (BU) to $5000 (MIT), with Stanford at around $2500. My second son may be able to take Linear Algebra through Stanford’s EPGY program for $700 as a high school student. If you are a college student you are directed to the same offering only for college students, the $2500 version I cited above. I am not sure I fully understand or can justify the difference in the pricing. </p>
<p>newmassdad,</p>
<p>Often a disagreement is over the use of terms, i.e. my use of monitoring and not viewing it as regulation. As I think about it a bit more it is regulation but lighter regulation than say price controls. At the end of the day I have a strong preference against government intervention but I also think that college tuition increases are perhaps more than necessary.</p>