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Identifying higher education cost drivers and working to limit their effects appears to be a necessity if higher education is to retain the support historically allocated by society. Costs occur for three groups: students, institutions, and society. This paper summarizes information about cost drivers in higher education and identifies two that are hidden, suggesting methods to curtail them. These are: (1) the funding tendency to provide more money to those who spend more, thereby eliminating cost containment incentives; and (2) the recent tendency to try to raise below-average faCulty and staff salaries to national averages in the name of justice. The national cost containment recommendations of the National Commission on the Cost of Higher Education include strengthening cost control, improving market information and public accountability, and deregulating higher education. The Commission also recommends rethinking accreditation and enhancing and simplifying federal student aid. This pape