&gt; Why is tuition continuing to rise so much faster than inflation? Is this simple supply and demand? Government backed loans create infinite supply to anyone who wants them?<p>I&#x27;m not convinced government backed loans have much to do with it. Here&#x27;s a table comparing Stanford tuition growth to inflation over periods of 10 years.<p>Each row represents the 10 years ending in the year given in the first column. Second column is how much inflation multiplied prices over that 10 years. Third column is how much Stanford tuition multiplied over that 10 years. Final column is the ratio of the Stanford column and the inflation column.<p><pre><code>   Year  Inflation Stanford    Ratio
   1930        0.8      2.5      3.0
   1940        0.8      1.2      1.4
   1950        1.7      1.9      1.1
   1960        1.2      1.5      1.2
   1970        1.3      2.4      1.8
   1980        2.1      2.6      1.2
   1990        1.6      2.3      1.4
   2000        1.3      1.7      1.3
   2010        1.3      1.6      1.3
</code></pre>
Government backed student loans didn&#x27;t really start taking off until the mid &#x27;60s, so maybe some of the Stanford spike in the 10 years ending in 1970 can be attributed to that, but after that it falls back to its &quot;normal&quot; faster-than-inflation rates.<p>It would be interesting to compare to other schools, in particular to other top private schools, top state schools, and other private and state schools, because it is quite possible that factors that can affect tuition affect it differently at different kinds of schools. My Googling only found sufficient historical tuition data for Stanford which is why that&#x27;s the only one I was able to compare against inflation.<p>Inflation data: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.usinflationcalculator.com&#x2F;inflation&#x2F;historical-inflation-rates&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.usinflationcalculator.com&#x2F;inflation&#x2F;historical-in...</a><p>Stanford tuition data: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;facts.stanford.edu&#x2F;administration&#x2F;finances" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;facts.stanford.edu&#x2F;administration&#x2F;finances</a>