How Much Should College Cost?
A Q&A with St. John’s College president Mark Roosevelt on how the school has thrived by reducing tuition — and why elite colleges are failing to expand opportunity for disadvantaged students.
Students on the campus of St. John’s College in Santa Fe.
Photo courtesy St. John’s College
This is one of a series of interviews by Bloomberg Opinion columnists on how to solve the world’s most pressing policy challenges. It has been edited for length and clarity.
Robert A. George: The spiraling cost of higher education in the U.S. has become a source of growing anger among students, parents and policy makers and raised questions about whether college remains an engine of economic opportunity. You’re the president of St. John’s College, which is unique for adhering to a Great Books curriculum and for having two campuses, one in Annapolis, MD and another in Santa Fe, NM. (Full disclosure: I’m a 1986 graduate of St. John’s.) You’ve also done something else that’s nearly unheard-of for small liberal-arts colleges: you slashed the cost of tuition. Can you talk about that decision?