According to this report (20 page PDF), "Three major forces have pushed up college tuition over time: rising costs, decreases in subsidies to institutions, and increasing use of institutional discounts to individual students." Bryan Alexander has quite a good summary. I personally think it's a fallacy to examine rising tuitions in isolation. Economically, the pact that existed between worker and industry dissolved in the 1970s, and so a post-secondary education became the only means to escape low wages and poverty. It was certainly that way for me. But since education was now needed, it meant that government support for it could be eroded. This chart must be seen in the context of this one.
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