If College Tuition Increases by Five Thousand % And Government Aid to Students by Five Hundred %, Whose Fault Is It?

I caught a bit of Bob Brinker's radio show this weekend. Brinker has a show called Money Talks and he takes calls from people who have questions about managing their money. I am not a regular listener but Brinker generally offers good advice.

Anyway, this weekend Brinker had a guest named Tamara Draut. She just wrote a book called "Strapped" which tells how the high cost of college has stapped 20 and 30-somethings. On the show, the author, Draut, blamed the government for cutting student loan programs and she used this as an example to make her case:

In 1948, the GI Bill paid a veteran $475 per year to use for college and that covered virtually the entire tuition bill at Harvard (except for $25). Today, Draut reported the GI Bill provides a grant of about $2,500 and that leaves a gap of more than $24,000 because Harvard's tuition is more than $28,000.

So according to Tamara's argument the government is not doing enough even though the GI grant increased by 500%. I would argue the problem is primarily due to Harvard's tuition increasing by an astronomical 5,000% . Maybe, Tamara should be asking why college tuition (at least at Harvard) has increased by ten times the rate of the government grant.