James V. Koch and Richard J. Cebula, Runaway College Costs: How College Governing Boards Fail to Protect their Students (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2020). 238 pp. $39.95 (hardcover), ISBN: 978‐1‐4214‐3888‐7
Published date | 01 September 2022 |
Author | G. Jason Jolley |
Date | 01 September 2022 |
DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13543 |
Book Reviews 967
Public Administration Review,
Vol. 82, Iss. 5, pp. 967–969. © 2022 by
The American Society for Public Administration.
DOI: 10.1111/puar.13543.
Reviewed by: G. Jason Jolley
Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Service, Ohio University
James V. Koch and Richard J. Cebula, Runaway College Costs:
How College Governing Boards Fail to Protect their Students
(Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2020).
238 pp. $39.95 (hardcover), ISBN: 978-1-4214-3888-7
The rising cost of college and the corresponding
burgeoning student loan debt obligations for
college graduates have received considerable
attention in the policy arena. For example, President
Joe Biden campaigned on making public colleges
and universities tuition-free for families with annual
incomes below $125,000. Other national Democratic
leaders have also pushed for student loan forgiveness
to provide relief to borrowers. Although some of the
policy focus has centered on for-profit universities as
a driver of the student loan debt crisis, the rising cost
of public higher education has received considerable
attention as well. A common narrative is that public
universities have been forced to raise tuition and fees
in response to state budget cuts to higher education.
In a groundbreaking new book, Runaway College
Costs: How College Governing Boards Fail to Protect
Their Students, two economists: James V. Koch
and Richard J. Cebula, empirically challenge the
narrative that public universities have been reluctant
to raise tuition and fees and have done so only due
to state budget cuts. Koch, president emeritus at
Old Dominion University, and Cebula, an affiliate
research professor in the economics department at
George Mason University, empirically examine the
factors influencing tuition and fee changes and the
role public college governing boards play in these
increases.
In the preface to the book, Koch and Cebula state that
99 percent of all proposals to increase tuition and fees
are approved by public college governing boards. They
further claim “Boards incentivize their presidents to
increase enrollment, bring in more gifts and research
funding, and improve their institution’s rating.
Access, affordability, income mobility, student debt,
and student learning are seldom included as essential
evaluative criteria. Presidents and institutions behave
accordingly” (p. vii–viii). As a result of this incentive
structure, tuition and fees have risen rapidly at many
public colleges over the last two decades. They note
that between 1999–2000 and 2017–18, “the average
number of hours a typical nonsupervisory worker”
had to work to pay average tuition and fees at a public
university had increased from 224 to 446hours over
this 18-year period (pp. viii). Over the course of the
book, they empirically examine the factors driving
this increase in tuition and fees with a particular focus
on the role of governing boards in approving (and
potentially limiting) these increases.
The first half of the book empirically examines
the real change in tuition and fees for 275 public
universities over a 14-year period (from 2003–04 to
2016–17). This sample is placed into overlapping
categories, including flagships, U.S. News elite
universities (the 28 highest rated public universities in
the 2018 U.S. News and World Report rankings), those
with medical schools, metro area universities, regional
universities, and historically Black colleges and
universities (HBCUs). In chapter3, Koch and Cebula
preview some of the key findings by examining the
bivariate relationship among the variables. They find,
for example, that the average real net tuition and fees
per full-time equivalency (FTE) student rose $6,033
at U.S. News elite universities and $5,148 at flagship
universities but only $326 at HBCU’s over this same
period.
This increase in tuition and fees is attributed to the
price-making ability of elite and flagship universities
to raise their tuition without significant backlash.
For example, only 15 percent of students at the
University of Virginia and 16.5 percent of students
at the University of Michigan come from families
in the lowest 60 percent of the income distribution
while 8.5 percent of students at the University of
Virginia and 9.3 percent of students at the University
of Michigan come from the top 1 percent, respectively
(p. 65). Further, Koch and Cebula assert that these
same institutions also engage in price discrimination
by charging more to students from wealthier families
once student aid is considered. Across the 275
institutions, Koch and Cebula found 208 institutions
raised tuition and fees more than the amount required
G. Jason Jolley is a Professor of Rural
Economic Development and MPA Director
at Ohio University’s George Voinovich
School of Leadership and Public Service.
Dr. Jolley’s research focuses on economic
development, and he has published in
Economic Development Quarterly, State
and Local Government Review
, and
Regional Studies, Regional Science
, among
other scholarly outlets.
Email: jolleyg1@ohio.edu
Get this document and AI-powered insights with a free trial of vLex and Vincent AI
Get Started for FreeStart Your 3-day Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting

Start Your 3-day Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting

Start Your 3-day Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting

Start Your 3-day Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting

Start Your 3-day Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
