I've had some time now to hunt down the data you need to compute college tuition vs. inflation and then draw your own conclusions, which will critically depend on which estimate of inflation you use. It is the difference in inflation estimates that accounts for the startling difference between inconsistent reports in the media about what is happening to higher education tuition.
Here is where you can find the data you need to really figure out what is happening to college tuition and why:
The first site is: http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=76
This is a BLS site. I don't use the constant dollar columns because they are based on government Consumer price inflation numbers that seriously underestimate true consumer price inflation. Instead, I use the current dollar columns, because this avoids distortion due to CPI calculation method. This is critical to getting a result that bears on reality.
You can see the result of the government altering it's method of computing consumer inflation here. http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data (See top line, middle chart.)
I use the SGS measure of consumer inflation which is based on the method the BLS used in 1980. This is a far more realistic measure of consumer inflation than what is being used now, where the government attempts to adjust prices for quality. A questionable method that yields a much lower measure of inflation that is favorable to the Treasury, because of indexed entitlements and TIPS. And also I suppose it may make it easier to cheat creditors via monetizing (I'm not sure about this latter statement. Our foreign creditors are not stupid.)
I have recalculated the tuition vs. inflation for public 4-year institutions. (You will get similar results, however, for other types on institutions.)
This time, I used the 29-year period, 1980-1 to 2009-10 academic years, public, 4-year institutions. The BLS data is $2550 to $14,261 for the tuition increase. I used the SGS mean consumer inflation rate over the period 1980 to 2010. That rate is approximately7.5%. I then computed what tuition should be today by adjusting the 1980-81 tuition for compounded inflation of 7.5% over 29'years. The inflation adjusted, 2009-10 tuition should be $20,700. In fact, it is only $14,261.
Using any reasonable time frame I always come out with either tuition increases keeping pace with inflation (barely) or lagging inflation, as over the example period above.
It now easy to understand why the public institutions are so strapped these days, especially when you consider that their appropriations have been falling in spite of inflation, and therefore even with hefty tuition increases they have been unable to maintain their budgets even with inflation. They are having a rough go of it!
I don't understand why there is so much shoddy reporting on this issue, but I suppose it's because when you use an unrealistic inflation measure you get an eye popping result that is feeds public perception and plays into the hands of those who want to paint public institutions as inefficient, and too expensive. Public perception is wrong in this case. What the public doesn't realize is that killing all those Iraqis and Afghans has caused their tuition to skyrocket. The big inefficiencies are in the pentagon; not in the universities.
The only place I have ever heard the correct figures for tuition increases versus inflation is on public radio. I don't suppose the public is ever going to prefer getting their information from public radio rather than the National Enquirer!
Buy the way, when you use the official government measure for consumer inflation, you get the numbers in the Gee Whiz article you cited. That's just another example of distortion resulting from government tampering with the inflation numbers.
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