Stats on Student Aid for College

Neal McCluskey had an interesting item for Cato today, Don't Believe the Ivory Hype. A few highlights are:

• Previous warnings in 2004 that the Chinese were going to graduate 600,000 engineers compared with only 70,000 for the US were wrong. Engineers with four-year degrees: China 350,000 compared to USA 140,000. Not nearly as big a difference. (I read elsewhere that part of this distortion came from originally including two-year degree students).
• According to the College Board's own numbers, between the 1994-95 and 2004-05 academic years, total inflation-adjusted federal student aid more than doubled, from $44.5 billion to $90.1 billion.
• And not just loans: Real Pell Grant funding rose from $7 billion to $13.1 billion, supplemental grants increased from $743 million to $771 million, work-study rose from $965 million to $1.2 billion, and federal tax benefits increased from nothing to more than $8 billion.
• Again according to College Board data, between 1994-95 and 2004-05 inflation-adjusted grant aid per student from both federal and other sources ballooned 51 percent, from $2,965 to $4,479, and overall aid rose 61 percent, from $6,261 to $10,119. Moreover, both grant and overall aid increases outpaced the growth in college costs.