It's just as much the fault of the school administrators. Tuition would be very different if students had the balls to drag the ********er administrators into the streets and beat them to within an inch of their worthless lives.
I'm not sure if the bolded part is a joke or not, but if your serious then re-read what I wrote.
While it would be great if businesses (universities/med schools are businesses, profit-status means nothing) "did the right thing" and charged only a small fraction above what they needed to operate, that's simply not realistic.
I think this may be the reason that so many people get frustrated with corporations and business and in a broader sense capitalism in general.
Its fairly difficult to predict what a given individual will do, however its very easy to broadly predict what businesses will do. Keep in mind that businesses can only remain in business if they make money. This is an inevitable fact. Because the need to make money underlies every business it is fairly easy to predict behavior they have the same core foundation.
So sure you can hold virtually every university administrator in the country responsible and lay the blame at their feet. OR you can understand the most basic principle that underpins every business and by doing so you will see that the overall global yearly increase in tuition prices is COMPLETLY predictable given the situation in the education market.
This can be applied to basically any industry/business. If you wonder why a particular company is doing something do a few simple things and the answer will become apparent.
1. Remember that businesses have to make money, and as such this is the primary reason for existence. This principle is usually the strongest motivating factor for any business behavior.
2. Look/examine all forces
for that particular business that affect its ability to do step one. This will generally include the cost of producing goods/services.
Don't be fooled into thinking this will be easy. In some cases it is however it may be very difficult to uncover all forces at work affecting the cost of doing business. Some typical factors will include but are not limited to: Cost of labor (payroll taxes, health insurance, unions, availability of skilled employees, regulations involving workplace environment, ect. all play a role), Taxes (local, state, federal, taxes on earnings, tax on inventory, tax on transporting goods to market, ect. all play a role), Cost of operations (usually involves cost of fixed assets such as machinery, buildings ect. government regulation plays a HUGE role in this area)
I could go on and on about how exhaustive step 2 can be I hope you get the point. Sometime cost structures w/in a given business are not easily seen and may take some digging.
3. Take data obtained from step 2 then put it in context of step 1 then smile and your new found understanding of a companies behavior.
Bonus info: Corporations are publicly traded and as such stock price and share holders come into play. Don't underestimate the effect this can have. A company can seemingly still make a profit after absorbing an additional new cost however companies are used to operating on certain profit margins. A fictitious example could be the EPA requiring additional processing of leftover manufacturing waste requiring significant cost increases. If an additional cost comes up that may affect "normal" margins of profit the person running the corporation (CEO) will be under lots of pressure from share holders to maintain the usual profit margin. This can lead corporations to do things that may seem counterintuitive in order to save money.
The bottom line is this, you can look at universities or any business and get upset about what they are doing and get mad at the people in charge and wish that they were "dragged into the street and beat within inches of their lives" OR you can apply some of the free knowledge I have imparted on you and UNDERSTAND why they are acting the way they do and then FOCUS ATTENTION ON AREAS THAT WILL MAKE A REAL DIFFERENCE.
Please don't mistake what I'm writing as a blanket acceptance or endorsement of the behavior of universities or corporations. I write what I have because if you apply the logic I have laid out to understanding business behavior it becomes much easier to see through the emotion and understand where real problems are. Business behavior is consistent and predictable. The rules by which business must operate is what is constantly changing.
If you want to change business (university's) behavior then focus on the forces at play and you will find an area to direct your attention in a productive way.