“Unfortunately, Perry is on the wrong track. The cost of higher education has risen chiefly because of the expansion of administration, both in numbers, salaries, and number of staff. And administrators, by and large, are also enamored of the university-as-business, student-as-customer model.”
That is not the cause, that is the effect. The cause is government grants and low interest loans from the government to pay students to get educated. These student grants and loan guarantees allow universities to give teachers and administrators more money. This increases the cost in a vicious cycle. It doesn’t matter if college is expensive if the government will pay people to attend anyway.