AUSTIN – Thomas Lindsay, Ph.D., Director of the Center for Higher Education at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, today released a new report "Anatomy of a Revolution? The Rise of the $10,000 Bachelor's Degree."
Last year, Governor Rick Perry took on the issue of rising tuition costs by challenging Texas' public colleges and universities to offer four-year bachelor's degrees for less than $10,000. Beginning this spring, a number of schools responded to the challenge by announcing their intention to launch such degrees in the 2012-13 academic year. Now, for the first time, the college-affordability crisis is being approached with a focus on how public colleges and universities might significantly reduce the tuition and fees they charge students, parents, and taxpayers.
In his report, Dr. Lindsay argues that the hammer of economic necessity will force a growing number of universities to move in the direction of $10,000 degree programs. Lindsay cites a recent study by Bain & Company, which finds that, roughly one-third of American colleges and universities have unsustainable business models.
Lindsay believes that this debate over higher education affordability is only the beginning of a larger, national discussion regarding runaway tuition costs. "Reaching the $10,000 degree benchmark in Texas will spark a revolution of rising expectations by prospective students and their families for more of such programs," he says. "The ground has shifted beneath the feet of traditional public higher education in Texas as well as the rest of the country."
Thomas K. Lindsay, Ph.D., is the Director of the Center for Higher Education at the Texas Public Policy Foundation.
The Texas Public Policy Foundation is a non-profit, free-market research institute based in Austin.
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