COLLEGE COSTS? ASK ANY PAYING STUDENT

Every time Missourians hear about another state commission, they tend to grab their wallets. That's because most commissions of late have produced predictable reports saying taxpayers ought to pay more for something.

Take the Total Transportation Commission of a few months back. The aim, we were told, was to put together the best statewide transportation plan possible. What we got -- and what we expected -- was a recommendation for more taxes, more spending and very little in the way of a plan.

Now the Coordinating Board for Higher Education, which is headed by former Southeast Missouri State University president Kala Stroup, has formed the Missouri Commission on the Affordability of Higher Education. The aim, we are told, is to better inform the public about college costs in the Show Me State.

Let's face it: High school students applying for college admission knows what it costs. So do their parents. So do students who are already enrolled in any of Missouri's colleges or universities.

So who, exactly, is supposed to benefit from the findings of the Missouri Commission on the Affordability of Higher Education?

This is where it gets fuzzy. Coordinating board officials are short on specifics, other than to say there was a national study done a while back, and one of its recommendations was that state's should do similar studies.

And the coordinating board folks say there is no budget for this commission, which means taxpayers will never learn how much they paid to have a special commission tell them what most of them already know, particularly if they are already footing college bills.

Students and parents of students already know, for example, that cost is no barrier to a college education. Financial aid is the biggest factor. There are very few qualified applicants who don't get a financial package to make enrollment a reality. Financial aid helps students go to the most affordable institutions as well as the priciest private school.

Despite the raw price tags of schools in Missouri, a college education is one of the best bargains to be found. Is this what the Missouri Commission on the Affordability of Higher Education wants to document?

What is to be feared is that the commission will recommend more tax dollars be spent to make colleges more affordable in an era when tuition and fees have increased anywhere from 70 percent at Missouri's private colleges and universities to 156 percent in the University of Missouri system over the past 10 years.

College educations are pretty much like any other commodity. Degrees from some schools are perceived to be worth more than others, and those institutions charge accordingly. And students pay, even if they have to get financial aid and take out loans.

Supply and demand appears to be working pretty well in higher education. Why do we need another state commission to tell us that?