Education
College tuition, student loan balances, and K-12 spending over time. The cost of a four-year degree has risen faster than almost any other category, reshaping how families plan for their children's futures.
College Tuition
Average annual tuition and required fees at four-year public universities for in-state students, from 1963 to 2025. Back in the early '60s, a year of college ran you about $243 — less than what most people spend on textbooks today. That number has since ballooned nearly fifty-fold, blowing past $11,000 by the mid-2020s. The acceleration wasn't steady, either. Costs crawled upward through the '70s, then took off like a rocket in the '80s and '90s as states slashed higher-ed funding and schools started treating tuition as their primary revenue lever.
Student Loan Debt at Graduation
Average cumulative student loan debt for bachelor's degree recipients at graduation, tracked from 1993 through 2025. Here's the thing people miss about the student debt story: the explosive growth phase is actually over. Debt tripled between 1993 and 2010, rocketing from $9,320 to over $25,000. But it's been hovering in the $28,000-$30,000 range for a decade now. That plateau doesn't mean the crisis is solved — it mostly reflects that borrowers hit a ceiling on what federal loans allow, not that college got cheaper.
K-12 Per-Pupil Spending
Average current expenditure per pupil in U.S. public elementary and secondary schools, from 1960 to 2025. Americans spend a lot more on K-12 than they used to — $375 per student in 1960 versus over $16,000 today — but the money hasn't always translated into results. Spending flatlined during the Great Recession, barely budging between 2009 and 2013, then took off again as pandemic-era federal relief poured billions into school districts. Where all that cash actually goes (staffing, facilities, administration) is its own rabbit hole entirely.
Private University Tuition
Average annual tuition and required fees at four-year private nonprofit universities in the United States, from 1970 to 2025. Private college has always carried a hefty price tag, but the trajectory over the past half-century is genuinely staggering. In 1970, a year at a private school ran about $1,700 — expensive for the time, but still within reach for a middle-class family willing to tighten the belt. Fast-forward to 2025 and that number has ballooned past $44,000. The increases weren't gradual, either — the late '80s and early 2000s saw some truly eye-watering jumps that left families scrambling.
College Textbook Prices
Average price of a required college textbook in the United States, tracked from 1980 to 2025. Textbooks are one of the few education costs that actually tell a redemption story. For three decades they followed the same relentless upward curve as tuition, climbing from about $15 in 1980 to a peak near $130 around 2012. But then something interesting happened — digital alternatives, open educational resources, and rental programs started eating into the traditional publishing model. Prices have been falling steadily since, dropping back below $80 by the mid-2020s.
Teacher Salaries
Average annual salary for public school teachers in the United States, tracked from 1960 to 2025. Teachers have always occupied a weird spot in the American economy — universally acknowledged as essential, perpetually underpaid relative to other college-educated professionals. In 1960, the average teacher earned just under $5,000 a year. By 2025, that figure has climbed past $69,000, which sounds like solid progress until you realize that housing, healthcare, and basically everything else has outpaced those gains. The 2010s were especially rough, with salaries essentially flatlined for nearly a decade.