“Get some burgers, get some beers data, a few laughs, Dude, our troubles are over.”

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/an-KDCB4bbmbh24m/the_big_lebowski_1998_walters_plan/

I thought of Walter’s line in the Big Lebowski while reading Dylan Matthews piece in the Washington Post wonkblog on college costs (part X: How do we fix it?) this morning. Matthews seems to think that better data on student outcomes, combined with a few readjustments of federal incentives will drive down college costs and tuition. I am not as well acquainted with college costs and financial aid as Matt Reed, Sara Goldrick Raab or Sherman Dorn. I do know enough to know that it is way more complicated than most pundits realize. I often invoke Archibald and Feldman for linking higher ed costs to the trajectory of costs in the rest of the service economy. Certainly higher education does have some differences from other services that require lots of education, like dentistry. But…