It's the Brian Lair show on WNYC. Good morning again everyone. Usually when we think

about the $1.6 trillion student debt crisis in this country, we're picturing the price

tax that come along with attending elite private universities, right? But tuition prices

at state universities have also skyrocketed over the last 20 years or so. As we approach

the restart of student loan collection next month, the Wall Street Journal released

kind of an exposé on the seemingly unfettered spending occurring at many public universities

across the country. So what is it that these state schools are spending on and what's

at the root of this trend? What might we do about it as well? We will pose these questions

and more to Melissa Korn, higher education reporter for the Wall Street Journal, who joins

us now. She is a reporter on the story in the journal with the headline, Colleges spend

money like there's no tomorrow. Melissa, thanks for being here today. Welcome to WNYC.

Thanks for having me. And of course, Colleges are all about tomorrow, supposedly for their

students, but they're spending like there's no tomorrow is the headline of your story.

So what universities did you look at and trying to answer what questions?

Sure. So my colleagues and I dug into the financial records of 50 flagship universities, one

for each state. Those are usually the oldest public university in each state. And we looked

at their audited financial records. We in some cases asked for specific data points that

are not included in their audited financials because there's not a lot of uniformity in

how schools report some of their numbers. And our goal was to figure out where the money

goes and where it's coming from over time. So we adjusted everything for inflation and

looked back 20 years to see what schools were spending more money on. The answer was

kind of everything all at once. And where the money was coming from, we saw a shift in

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