College costs are not skyrocketing and why the Iowa Tuition Grant is so impactful

Several higher education issues have surfaced in the media in recent years. Many stories are extreme cases presented out of context by biased organizations and are irresponsibly amplified on social media. I plan to address these inaccurate narratives head-on through a series of essays. One common narrative is college costs are out of control. While this may be the case at elite colleges, the reality at BVU and in Iowa does not fit that narrative.  Relevant data to this issue is the net price, or out-of-pocket cost of attendance. This is the amount a student pays after scholarships and grants that do not need to be repaid, and includes room and board costs. This information is publicly available for all colleges and universities in the United States on www.collegescorecard.ed.gov.   At Buena Vista University, the net price of attendance over the past 12 years has been the same each year, plus or minus $1,000, as it was in 2011. The small fluctuations in net price for attending BVU have paralleled those of the University of Iowa, and many years BVU’s net price has been less than that of the University of Iowa. Certainly, the cost of wages, goods, and services have increased significantly over the past decade. When adjusting for inflation, the cost of attendance has declined 2-4% annually since 2019. The narrative that college costs are out of control is just not true.  There are three reasons why BVU has been able to keep the out-of-pocket cost of attendance fixed over the past 12 years despite seeing increased costs to deliver our transformational academic experiences.  Fiscal management We have worked hard to manage expenses, including reducing staffing over time, and keeping a close eye on expenditures. Our faculty and staff have done a remarkable job of creatively leveraging limited resources to deliver great experiences for our students. Students are blessed to have the opportunity to be taught, mentored, coached and served by dedicated BVU faculty and staff who fully embrace our mission of preparing students for lifelong success through transformational academic experiences.  Our generous benefactors Past endowment gifts for scholarships, and contributions to our annual fund by board members, alumni, and local businesses and individuals have been integral to helping us keep the cost of attendance more manageable for our students. There is no doubt the community’s financial and logistical support kept BVU alive in the early 20th Century, and today our supporters continue to play an important role in keeping BVU strong. We are grateful for that support! There are now more than 500 BVU graduates living in Storm Lake and nearly 900 in Buena Vista County. BVU graduates are teaching in all 99 counties in Iowa. The investments our benefactors make in BVU are investments in our city, county, and state.  The bipartisan support for the Iowa Tuition Grant by the Iowa Legislature With increases the past six years that have exceeded increases the federal government has been willing to make through the Pell Grant program, the Iowa Tuition Grant now provides $7,500 of support to students from lower-income families in Iowa. It is an effective and important taxpayer investment in Iowa’s economic growth. Many years the number of bachelor’s degrees awarded by the private colleges in Iowa (as a sector) does not differ greatly from the number of bachelor’s degrees awarded by the Regents institutions of UNI, Iowa State and Iowa combined. The private colleges do this at a much lower cost per student to the Iowa taxpayer than what is allocated annually to the Regents institutions. And the great thing about investing in private colleges like BVU, is 75% or more of our graduates remain in the state after graduating, a percentage that is consistently much higher than that of the Regents institutions. The Regents institutions play an important role in our state economics, but so do the private colleges.  The Iowa Tuition Grant has been such a great investment because the grant is for the student and is not for the institution. This creates a free market system for Iowa college-bound residents that allows the schools who do the best job educating students to benefit from students attending. Students who find a private college they attend to be too politically or religiously out of sync with their values can transfer to a different private college and maintain their Iowa Tuition Grant support or, they can choose to attend a Regents institution the taxpayer already supports, at an out-of-pocket cost similar or less than a private college like BVU. I am grateful both political parties in Des Moines can agree that supporting Iowa students through the Iowa Tuition Grant is a wise use of taxpayer dollars.  The narrative that college costs are spiraling out of control for students is just not true at BVU. Because of sound fiscal management, generous benefactors, and support from the Iowa Tuition Grant, the cost of attending BVU has remained unchanged for over 12 years. The question of whether it is “worth it” to make an investment in a bachelor’s degree is a topic I will explore in a future essay.  Dr. Brian Lenzmeier, Ph.D., is president of Buena Vista University in Storm Lake.