Submitted by CARPE DIEM

The graph above was created using college tuition data from the National Center for Education Statistics (with estimates for 2007 and 2008), Consumer Price Index data from the BLS, and average annual oil price data for West Texas Intermediate Oil from Global Financial Data. All series are set to an index value of 100 in the base year of 1976. Comments:

1. During a 22-year period from 1982-2003, real oil prices were below their 1981 level.

2. College tuition has increased by almost 10X since 1976, compared to a 7.48X increase in oil prices over the same period.

3. Given the fact that college tuition has gone up by far more than oil prices over the last thirty years, why doesn’t rising college tuition get the same attention as rising oil prices? Where are the Congressional hearings on “tuition gouging,” “windfall university endowments ($342 billion currently),” etc.

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