HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Diversity makes college more expensive, economics professor argues.

Why has the price of college increased so rapidly in the past 30 years?

Among the many theories proffered by scholars and researchers at a Cato Institute event Wednesday, one jumped out: Diversity is expensive.

“Students today are more expensive to educate” than past generations, said Douglas Webber, an economics professor at Temple University who identifies as politically progressive.

They are “much more diverse” than the “traditional demographic” that paid relatively little for their educations, he said. Thus, college costs and tuitions are apt to increase as schools transition away from educating monolithic student bodies.

Hmm.