FEDERAL AID ADDS TO TUITION INFLATION

Concluding that tuition has risen faster than the cost of educating students, a national panel recommended recently that colleges curb expenses and make more information available on costs and student aid. The National Commission on the Cost of Higher Education, agreeing on recommendations to Congress and the White House, also questioned guaranteed tenure for faculty and urged a mandatory retirement policy.

The commission's last session opened with a report showing that tuition more than doubled between 1987 and 1996 at public colleges and universities -- from nearly $1,700 to $3,900. At the same time, the cost of educating a student increased by one-half -- from nearly $8,000 to more than $12,000.

Tuition has made up for the decline in direct state support for institutions. The Associated Press story reporting this news stated the matter rather delicately: "Panelists acknowledged that colleges and universities have chosen more often to raise prices than cut costs." There's one we can agree with. But read on: "Increased student aid in the form of grants and loans has eased the burden for many. But panelists also acknowledged that student debt has grown at an alarming rate, and there may be a connection between higher lending and higher tuition."

May be? There may be a correlation between higher lending and higher tuition? Well of course there is a correlation between the two. There is, as well, a correlation between tuition subsidies of the kind President Clinton got through Congress, and the one Gov. Mel Carnahan proposes for Missouri, and higher college tuition. Enact these, and you help drive college tuitions higher. The correlation is direct.

Beyond that, the commission's recommendation questioning guaranteed tenure for teaching personnel has much to commend it. Would that we could make some headway in trimming the tenure laws. There is every reason to believe these commission recommendations will gather dust on the shelf, as most such reports do. More's the pity.

An overarching consideration, however, is how much intervention from the federal government is needed in our colleges and universities. Thanks to funding strings through student aid and other grants, the government's tentacles tend to grow longer and longer.