How the Government Exaggerates the Cost of College

David Leonhardt writes in the New York Times about the U.S. government’s "infamous" statistic for college-tuition inflation. According to Leonhardt, this measure is "deeply misleading" and distorts the debate about whether college is worth it. The statistic was based on the list prices that colleges published in their brochures and ignores financial aid grants. "In reality, college tuition has risen less than half as much in the last two decades as the official data suggest," writes Leonhardt.