Costs are going up for a variety of fucked up reasons...
Yep, two and half wars that in direct, indirect, and replenishment costs will run three trillion and Bush's [unproductive] tax cuts at 2.35 trillion. The wars come to $60 billion per state and the tax cuts at $47 billion per state - basically $10.7 billion per year per state.
As someone with a daughter with one more year at UW I suppose we'll go ahead and pay what will be 55% increases over the time she's been in college - but anyone who doesn't realize where the money went is blind, delusional, or both.
When I was in the UC system tuition went up from about $550 per quarter to well over a thousand. This has been going on for decades. Blame Bush, yawn - the stupid one track record is getting boring. There are many reasons costs of universities (both public and private) are rising.