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Why Starbucks is Right, and Obama Wrong, On Tuition

Market Watch

I know the $3,750 yearly tuition I paid the Catholic University of America at Alana’s age has gone the way of six-mile walks to school in the snow. But even after inflation, the $39,200 tuition-only cost of 2014-15 is more than three times what I paid. And CUA is — sorry — not three and a half times the school it was.

Now this becomes a tale of Mark Cuban, Howard Schultz and Barack Obama.

Obama, like Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, has decided the culprit is student-loan interest rates. About 71% of college students borrow, graduating with an average $29,400 debt, according to 2012 data. That’s near the inflation-adjusted value of what I borrowed, so I understand the burden, but I was an outlier, and now it’s the norm.