It isn’t about litigation or regulation or snowflakes.
Colleges kept raising prices year after year for exactly one reason – because they could.
Because demand for seats in college kept increasing – echo boomer kids increased the annual number of HS grads, plus an increasing percentage of HS grads started going to college, plus internationals increasingly seeking a U.S. college education. Also, families got themselves comfortable with taking on debt to finance higher ed.
But now, demand is lower. There’s fewer HS grads each year. The share of HS grads going to college is flat. Fewer or flat internationals. And folks less willing to borrow for college.
The lower demand is really hitting the for-profit schools hard, especially since the job market has been stronger the past few years. But weak demand is also hitting traditional non-profits, who are not able to raise net (i.e. after aid and discounts) prices much or at all.
But demand for seats at the high end schools remains very strong. So those schools are able to continue to raise prices like it was 1999.
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/07/college-bubble-ends/534915/