IHLs with handsome endowments can manage such things. State universities that depend on legislative appropriations are not well positioned. I went to a state university (decades ago) that was affordable at the time. Now, it has become quite expensive. The state legislature has continuously reduced appropriations for state colleges and the university for decades, resulting in my alma mater becoming a "rich kid" (or a "richer kid") school. Increasing endowment has been a priority because of decreasing public funding, but, unless someone specifies a purpose, scholarships are hard to come by.
So...there has become, and continues to increase, a lot of "luxury student housing." BMWs and Range Rovers and other high end cars are pretty common. A lot of those have out-of-state license plates (those families pay like double tuition). There are foreign students with Jaguars and Ferraris. I drove a Volkswagen Bug.
Well, the point is that money is what an educational experience has become about - going in, and coming out. Politics is what happens in the state legislature when appropriations are involved.
Students from disadvantaged backgrounds who earn one or more degrees from an elite IHL are not going back to the coal mining town or to the family farm, or to their old neighborhood. They expect far more, and they expect to get paid for it. Then - maybe not right away, but eventually - they become part of a meritocracy that starts to think a lot like the state legislature
. By that stage, political views become more sensitive to income statements and brokerage accounts.
Most students from elite prep schools are already attuned to money and advantage. Others from different backgrounds, those who enter the IHL meritocracy, become very much like the former....maybe not while at Yale, but they can still join the Yale Club later.
