US Government Spending On Colleges Is Already Higher Than In The Countries With "Free" College"
But how can this be, since we're told constantly how expensive it is to attend a higher education institution in the United States?
One factor is that American colleges and universities spend much more on educating each student - assuming "education" is the proper term here. In the US, adding together both government and private sources together, we find far more funds pouring into US colleges, than is the case elsewhere. According to the OECD, "total expenditure on educational institutions per full-time equivalent student" clocks in at $30,003 in the US. That's second only to Luxembourg which is off the charts at $48,907. The UK — where residents often complain about the cost of higher education — comes in right behind the US at $26,000. But few other countries even crack the $20,000 mark. Total spending on higher education in France is $16,145. It's $17,036 in Germany. Higher education institutions in Spain require only $12,605 per student.1
Moreover, what's driving much of the spending — in terms of both government spending and private-sector spending — is the fact that colleges and universities in America spend far more on administration and ancillary services than higher education institutions elsewhere. Writing for The Atlantic last year, Amanda Ripley noted:
The U.S. ranks No. 1 in the world for spending on student-welfare services such as housing, meals, health care, and transportation, a category of spending that the OECD lumps together under “ancillary services.” All in all, American taxpayers and families spend about $3,370 on these services per student—more than three times the average for the developed world. … One reason for this difference is that American college students are far more likely to live away from home. And living away from home is expensive, with or without a lazy river. Experts say that campuses in Canada and Europe tend to have fewer dormitories and dining halls than campuses in the U.S.
This helps keep costs down. As Marketplace reported back in 2015, "Students in Germany … tend to stay local, so there aren't any dorms. There are no active student clubs, or big football stadium. And every lecture hall looks huge … All of this translates to savings…" (For more on how "free" European colleges economize, see "'Free College' Comes at a Price."
But it's not just physical amenities like dorms. Ripley adds:
U.S. colleges spend, relative to other countries, a startling amount of money on their non teaching staff, according to the OECD data. Some of these people are librarians or career or mental-health counselors who directly benefit students, but many others do tangential jobs that may have more to do with attracting students than with learning. Many U.S. colleges employ armies of fund-raisers, athletic staff, lawyers, admissions and financial-aid officers, diversity-and-inclusion managers, building-operations and maintenance staff, security personnel, transportation workers, and food-service workers.
Indeed, if government agencies in the US really wanted to make an education more affordable, they'd be slashing the "diversity" staff, getting rid of their on-campus housing and dining halls, and privatizing all athletic programs.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-04-26/us-government-spending-colleges-already-higher-countries-free-college