Preston Cooper
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Colleges serving mostly low-income students tend to offer a worse return on investment than schools serving mostly well-off students.
Higher education is supposed to be a path to the middle class. But new research from FREOPP shows that millions of college students are pursuing degrees that are not likely to boost their earnings enough to justify the cost of college.
Americans are paying far too much to attend college. Preston Cooper wants to change that.
In 2003, Americans owed $240 billion in student loans. That may seem like a lot. But in the first quarter of 2020, Americans owed $1.5 trillion in student loans: more than they owed in auto loans ($1.3 trillion) or credit card debt ($890 billion). Despite this staggering sum, colleges, universities, and vocational schools keep increasing their tuition and fees at rates that outstrip inflation or income growth.
“The federal government has fueled a boom in college tuition,” says Preston. “Federal aid is geared toward four-year college degrees, to the exclusion of better and more affordable options, like apprenticeships and work-based learning.”
Skyrocketing college tuition is doubly problematic because a glut of college grads has made it harder for those with high school diplomas or vocational training to land jobs they’re perfectly qualified for.
Preston grew up in Washington, D.C., in an economics-oriented household. His mother, Sheila Bair, was the acting chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in 1993 under President Bill Clinton, and chaired the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, serving as a key policymaker during the 2008 financial crisis.
Preston majored in economics at Swarthmore College, where he learned firsthand about the rising cost of a college degree. “While I was in college, I kept thinking: ‘I love learning. I love building my skills. But there has to be a cheaper way to do this.’”
After graduation, Preston joined the think tank world, working for two years each at the Manhattan Institute and the American Enterprise Institute. In 2016, he joined Forbes as a Contributor, and in 2023, he earned his Ph.D. in Economics at George Mason University.
At FREOPP, Preston is a Senior Fellow, where he continues his work on making postsecondary education affordable and valuable for every American. He is best known for his pioneering work on returns on investment for college and university degrees that compare what they cost to what students earn after graduation. “I’m so proud to be part of a community like FREOPP’s that believes in unleashing the potential of every person through creative reforms.”
