"There are those in the university community who give the impression that skyrocketing tuition is a fact of life, endowments are their nest eggs to nurture and a higher endowment payout would cause the sky to fall," writes Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, in Forbes. "But it's time to crack a few of those eggs in the name of student aid. The idea of pressing universities to spend more of their endowments might seem radical. Private foundations made that argument decades ago. But the sky didn't fall. Private foundations are thriving. And it's healthy to debate whether tremendous endowment growth could provide more opportunities for affordable higher education than currently exist."