Investor’s Business Daily cites a new report which lays the high cost of college at the feet of big government.

Report: Big Government Is To Blame For Soaring College Costs

Americans have watched in anguish as the cost of college has soared out of reach. What they don’t know is that a big reason for rising costs is the surge in federal spending over the past 35 years.

A new report from the Center for College Affordability & Productivity tells a story many Americans probably haven’t heard — that college costs are rising fast not only because of a flood of new students, but also because federal spending is pushing up costs across the board.

The sprawling college aid program, say authors Richard Vedder, Christopher Denhart and Joseph Hartge, “contributes to skyrocketing costs, finances a wasteful academic arms race, weakens academic standards, lowers educational opportunity and worsens the underemployment/overinvestment problem.”

The report notes that tuition after inflation was increasing at a modest 1% a year before 1978. Since then, fees have ratcheted up 3% to 4% annually.

A big reason for this is the 1972 Pell Grant Program, which was greatly expanded in 1978 by President Carter to include middle-class families for the first time.

Today, this presents a paradox for parents.

As much as they want help from the federal government in the form of scholarships, grants and subsidized student loans for their college-age kids, big government’s growing involvement makes college less affordable. More aid means higher costs — a vicious circle.

So what’s the solution? Ideally, the authors say, federal spending on higher education should be abolished. Of course, that’s not realistic, given that education is now viewed by most as a middle-class entitlement.