Students on Edge over Rising Tuition

(AP)  As students around the country anxiously wait for college acceptance letters, their parents are sweating the looming tuition bills at public universities.

Florida college students could face yearly 15 percent tuition increases for years, and University of Illinois students will pay at least 9 percent more. The University of Washington will charge 14 percent more at its flagship campus. And in California, tuition increases of more than 30 percent have sparked protests reminiscent of the 1960s.

Tuition has been trending upward for years, but debate in statehouses and trustee meeting rooms has been more urgent this year as most states struggle their way out of the economic meltdown.

The College Board says families are paying about $172 to $1,096 more in tuition and fees this school year. The national average for 2009-2010 is about $7,020, not including room and board, according to the nonprofit association of colleges that oversees the SATs and Advanced Placement tests.

Mike Sarb, a University of Illinois senior from suburban-Chicago Elk Grove Village, Ill., says money is a big concern for his blue-collar family scrambling to find the money to pay more than $20,000 for tuition, room and board.

They are not pleased that university officials are likely to raise tuition 9 percent this summer.

"They do complain that the school's taking advantage of people (by raising tuition)," Sarb said.

But interim President Stanley Ikenberry says the school has run out of options. With a budget deficit expected to top $11 billion this year, the state of Illinois owes the university more than $430 million, money he doesn't expect to see any time soon.

In some cases, one student's tuition disaster is another's bargain.

State officials have told Florida students they can expect 15 percent tuition increases every year until tuition reaches the national average. That could be a long slog, as the state is starting its tuition realignment from a place other students envy - about $3,000 a year.

In California, unprecedented budget cuts to higher education have led to huge fee increases at the state's two public university systems, as well as layoffs, furloughs, enrollment cuts and reduced course offerings.

At the University of California, which has 10 campuses and about 220,000 students, in-state undergraduate fees in fall 2010 are set to reach $10,302 - 32 percent more than in fall 2009 and three times what California residents paid 10 years ago.

But at California State University, the nation's largest public university system with 23 campuses and 450,000 students, resident undergraduate fees rose 32 percent from fall 2008 to fall 2009 to $4,026, which is nearly three times what students paid 10 years ago. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget proposal for 2010-2011 assumes that the system will raise fees another 10 percent in the coming academic year.

"We're paying more and getting less," said Steve Dixon, a Humboldt State University senior who heads the California State Students Association.

At the University of Washington, where tuition and fees are expected to pass $9,000 by the 2010-2011 school year, students are worried about threatened cuts in financial aid as well.

"It's kind of a perfect storm for students," said Jono Hanks, a political science major from Everett, Wash., who is the UW student government lobbyist at the statehouse this quarter.

Hanks lives at home, packs his lunch and pays tuition with work and about $4,000 in student loans a year. Others have told him they're looking for a second job and adding to their debt to keep up with this year's 14 percent tuition increase.

"Some of them are even talking about dropping out for a few years so they can pay off the loans they have," Hanks said.

The Seattle university expects to raise tuition another 14 percent next year. UW tuition used to double every decade. At 14 percent a year, it could double in five.

Hanks is almost finished with school so he's not that concerned about his ability to pay for the last few quarters of his degree. But he does worry what barrier tuition increases will pose for his younger sister and brother, who are both in elementary school.

Other states have been more subtle in their budget balancing attempts.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison is in the first year of a four-year tuition increase plan aimed at improving quality. In addition to statewide tuition increases of about 5.5 percent, in-state students at UW-Madison will pay an extra $250 a year each year.

This year, tuition went up by $617 to $7,296 or about 9.2 percent, but financial aid increased at the same time.

Still, few are complaining because the extra money - $100 million in the first four years and $40 million each year afterward is reserved for providing more classes, improving student services and increasing need-based financial aid.

The Georgia Board of Regents has suspended indefinitely its popular "Fixed for Four" guaranteed tuition program, which since 2006 has meant students have paid the same tuition rate annually for four years of college. A freshman at the University of Georgia this year pays $3,865 in tuition and fees per semester if they take between seven and 15 hours of classes.

Some students are relieved at modest tuition increases this year, including 3.5 percent in Ohio, less than 5 percent in Pennsylvania, and 3.9 percent at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

So far a few states, like Oklahoma and Missouri, have avoided tuition increases entirely. And the Oklahoma Legislature gave its state universities no reason to complain when it fulfilled the state higher education budget request.

[squeakof2006]

I am a first-generation college student. I graduated in the top 20% of my class of over 300 students and still struggle to pay my college expenses every semester. I have had to change universities, spend all my savings, and am still having to take out large amounts of debt. If I don't find a bigger paycheck soon, I'm going to have no choice other than to drop out. Not even the programs that are meant to help students that want to get a teaching degree have covered the rising cost of my tuition. There are many colleges in the U.S. Why are tuition prices going up faster than inflation when the average paycheck of students and their families are going down?

[ddaryl1]

If the students were smart they would protest by skipping the next semester.. ALL OF THEM. When Colleges are pretty close to empty they'll get the idea.

I also beleive the middle class in this country should pick a week and not go to work for the entire week. A work stoppage. Lets see what happens after we shut down the country completely. think they might notice us then ?

Until students and workers actually hit the colleges and country where it matters they'll just keep walking all over us..

I bet none of you have the guts to do such a thing though...

[dmwj2]

It will happen one day... when the pesants have had enough...

[iirishamerican]

Isn't this yet another lie from the big O? during his campaign he said he was going to make it easier to get aid to attend school and make it more affordable, I guess thats only for foriegners or could it be that that was just another lie he used to get votes. My girlfriend would like to go back to school and listened to his lies and voted for him, she thought she now might able to get a student loan, turns out she is white and was born in this country so they can't help her, to bad she speaks english also. Double whamy

[dmwj2]

That is BS!!! Obama has nothing to do with who gets grants. I put myself through college with Pell Grants, and Student Work Study, and I am a WHITE MALE, and was in my LATE 20's at the time!! It has to do with how much money YOU and your PARENTS make, and how much YOU and your SPOUSE makes. Why do you want to turn this on Obama? Sad... Very sad...

[dmwj2]

I would like to remind you all, that a college education was never meant for everyone. It is for the elite, and those that are willing sacrifice and work hard to get it. The majority of our contemporary workforce was meant to work in labor, mechanical/technical, and service markets... Jobs that do not require a college education. As we have outsourced much of these markets, and gave a good portion to foreign labor (to save a buck) we have forced our future generations to NEED a college education, just to eek by. And, to make it worse, they come out of college with massive debts. If this country, and our represetatives in DC do not wake up, and find a clear solid path for our future, this country is doomed.

[WiseWidget]

One significant root of the problem is in the extravagant, lavish retirements that many states have promised those retiring from university positions (not to mention all government employees, who received the same promise). The states don't have the money to pay for these extravagant retirements where the retiring employee often makes more from retirement than he/she did working full time. Now someone has to pay off these greedy pigs, who are not about to give up a dime of their wildly extravagant retirements. Greed rules and the rest of us are out of luck!

[displeased]

Our retirement plans aren't that great. State employees have decent benefits, but our take home pay sucks. And I don't know anybody retired that makes more than what they earned. If they do, it is a result of their own investments, which is common with faculty. Staff can't afford it.

[pubsrtoast]

Thesevenveils, you are obviously not paying attention. When Bill gates goes before congress asking for an expansion of the H1b1 program, because "there aren't enough technically qualified workers" the part of the sentence left unsaid but fully understood by the paid off lackeys in Congress is "That are willing to work for what we want to pay". It is the same story on the lower end of the pay scale when the Western Growers Association goes before them and asks for more Mexican labor to pick their crops.

[Freedomforever88]

College cost are going up twice the level of inflation. Medical cost are going up faster then inflation. Both are industries w/ heavy govt interference.

[pubsrtoast]

Privatization works wonders eh? How much has your cable bill went up over the last 20 years?

[displeased]

I bet a state run university is still cheaper than a private one. And how does government determine medical costs? Aren't the insurance companies responsible for that? And pharmaceuticals are heavily controlled by government?

[wjksea]

Why must the aristocracy that has leveraged increased efficiencies for extracting and retaining wealth be called upon to aid all of this slobbering need? When monarchies climb the ladder of success, it only makes sense that they pull the ladder up on the roof and deny posterity. This is capitalism. It is completely american and patriotic. Game over. The end. Now may the supreme court nominate Fox corporation to be the next ruler of the United States so that american can stay america.

[thesevenveils]

Large Corporations like Microsoft push hard on Congress every year to raise the number of technical working VISAs for foriegn workers and always saying there aren't enough in the US. Yet, there are millions of high school students who could do fill these jobs if only they could afford a college education.

In the 70s an 18 credit hour semester of college at a state university including books cost less than $500. Today it costs $1500 and more in some states.

How can the US maintain its technological advantage when the majority of students qualified for college can not afford to do so?

[libftw]

Ask yourself why costs for college level math increases at twice the level of inflation. Or English Lit. Has there been a new costly breakthrough in our understanding of Shakespeare? Has a cost per operation cola affected multiplication?