[From the diaries by susanhu.] State colleges are supposed to represent a value and opportunity for state residents. However, over the last 15 years, states are less responsible for the cost of this education, passing off the costs to students in the form of tuition increases. As a result, students are relying more on debt to finance their education, entering the workforce with higher amounts of debt to pay-off.
Tuition increases are not a new event; they have been occurring for some time. Between 1988 and 1998, the average annual state-sponsored school tuition increase was 4.1%. Over the same period, state appropriations — which comprise 33.4% of total state school revenues — decreased 1% annually. As a result, tuition as a percentage of total state school revenue increased from 22.7% to 31.1% from 1988 – 1998. In other words, the cost of state education is falling more and more on students as opposed to the state governments.
Since 1998, college tuition costs have continued escalating out of control, making college a less affordable proposition for students. The year-over-year percent increases for 2001-2005 were 7.1%, 9.7%, 13.9% and 10.6%, respectively. Over this same time, state appropriates increased at a 4.6% between 2001-2002, decreased 1%, and 2.3% between 2003-2003 and 2003-2004 and increased 3.8% between 2004-2005. In other words, the trend established
Perhaps just as important is the changing methodology for financing education. Between 1990-1991, loans comprised 49.3% of total tuition payments. This percentage increased to 55.8% in the years 2002-2003. As a result, the increased use of personal debt to finance education at a time when tuition is increasing means graduates enter the workforce with a larger amount of debt to pay-off.
To sum up, states are passing off the cost of education more and more to students, who are entering the workforce with increasing amounts of debt.
http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2002/2002157.pdf
http://www.aascu.org/pdf/05_charges.pdf
Thanks to Susan for Promoting this to the front page. It is an honor to be here.
For those of you interested, I wrote the first diary on this yesterday and it is available here:
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2005/7/4/95534/51161
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This is a great diary to bring up. Good on you, Bondad! To me, democracy isn’t democracy at all without it’s people being educated.
..and just how do they think we’re going to be able to compete in the world market place like this?
The mind reels and the blood boils 🙁
My daughter’s getting free copies of “The Week,” a new-ish news magazine, as part of her subscription to Salon. In it, I read that tuition and fees at Harvard are nearing $30K per year. It costs a minimum of $42K per year to go to Harvard. If I recall correctly, it said that Harvard’s tuition/fees have gone up $10K in less than 10 years. Something like that.
This is NUTS! And many, many young people cannot afford to go to a COMMUNITY college. It’s very expensive.
Harvard tuition has absolutely no connection with the real world. First off, after you include housing it costs more like $50k a year to go there. Second off, anybody who gets accepted can go, regardless of their financial status. Harvard has money running out of its ears, and if your parents can’t pay there will be plenty of other places to get the bucks.
It is more obvious daily what the plan is. They HAVE, we have NOT, and they’re not going to give in, unfortunately, I’m afraid there is going to be a battle. How it’s going to be fought, is the scary part!
But rest assured of this, I WILL FIGHT, and it won’t be the first time ; ) (they trained me well)
Everything surounding this administration is tearing at the very moral fiber of this country, and the ones that have become associated with it. Where ever I go, I feel like I’m walking through a mine field, just waiting for one to go off, and start a chain reaction. People are walking around like steam boilers ready to burst at any moment. And we wonder why there is so much killing these days? Not me
And, along with making college educations the exclusive province of the elite, they’ll get rid of all those far left riff-raff professors.
yeppers, and soon they’ll be wearing robes with a cross embroidered on the front and back.
The Crusaders Return…..
Unless they’re Gilbert & Sullivan fans and then they’ll favor the Judge Rehnquist look.
Sometimes I wonder whether people have their brains turned on around here. It’s not the evil Republican administration that sets college tuition fees, it’s the states. And the states controlled by the Democratic party have bad records on college tuition.
E.g. Kansas, $2412 (in-state), $6638 (out-of-state).
E.g. Massachusetts, $9278, $18397.
Oh, you say, but who the heck would want to go to college in friggin’ Kansas? Well, guess what, in the quality rankings, Kansas beats Massachusetts.
http://www.ucop.edu/pres/comments/99ucrank.html
Why might this be the case? Perhaps it’s because in Massachusetts, all the politicians are spoiled rich kids whose parents sent them to Harvard. (Or BC.) E.g. Kennedy, Kerry, Delahunt, Frank, etc. There’s no need for the proletariat to go to college.
So the answer is, if you’re smart go to a midwestern state college and save your money for graduate school.
It is not a “Republican” problem, it is a “Both parties are screwed up” problem–with the Democrats seriously NOT taking the lead on fixing it.
You can’t include California in the comparison. Despite the governator, we’ve got a Demo state legislature, and the Univ of Calif, Cal State U, and community college systems are still among the best education bargains in the country, even though fees have risen in recent years.
That is true, and the program for underprivileged families to get kids through college is pretty aggressive…