The Department of Education (DoE) launched a site on Thursday where families can compare colleges' tuition rates, percent tuition increases and net cost of attending each college.
Mandated by the recent Higher Education Act, the website provides a user-friendly interface to learn about the costs of attending almost every college-level institution. Colleges are divided by criteria such as public and private, for-profit and not-for-profit, and 4-year and 2-year colleges. The colleges whose tuition rates are growing the fastest will be required to report to the Department of Education on why their tuition rates are so high and how they will keep prices down.
The DoE hopes these numbers will highlight those colleges performing efficiently, helping families make the tough decisions about college. A separate study, reported by the New York Times, indicates that community colleges prices are rising as well. Community colleges have historically been an affordable option for higher education, but increasing tuition rates are making these institutions unaffordable for many American families.
How do you think tuition rates should be kept down? Do you think the DoE's effort to consolidate information on college prices is helpful?