Social Security Garnishments Higher education costs have outstripped inflation for the last 30 years. Since 1980, the cost of college and university tuition, not including business or technical schools, has risen by an average of 7.5 percent a year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. During the same time, inflation was just 3.3 percent a year, on average. Total average tuition and room and board rates charged for full-time undergraduate students in degree-granting institutions in the 1980-81 school year stood at $7,341 in today's dollars. By 2009-10, that had ballooned to $17,633, according to the National Center [...]