Families On Edge Over Soaring Tuition

[OhioChick]

Families Paying $172 To $1,096 More In Tuition, Fees This School Year
DONNA GORDON BLANKINSHIP, Associated Press Writer

3:55 pm EST February 1, 2010

SEATTLE -- 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.

More: http://www.newsnet5.com/education/22401816/detail.html

[JuniperLea]

1. Only the wealthy can afford an education...

Something tells me this is exactly the way they want it.

[KansDem]

4. That's the way it was in the Middle Ages...

If I recall correctly, only the clerics could read and write; everyone else (save perhaps some in the ruling class) was illiterate.

That's why they're called the "Dark Ages."

[MisterP]

5. well, that's sorta backward: before Gutenberg, none of those peasants would've had real access to

the written word, even if they were literate
it's like asking why everyone at a 21st-century McDonald's doesn't have history or biology MAs: it was a specialist task, so a farmer would have as much use for it as expertise in pottery firing
(and they really were called the Dark Ages because Petrarch in the 14th century didn't approve of the poetry of the past centuries: guess literary snobs have been with us longer than we thought...)

[KansDem]

6. True, Gutenberg made his printing press around 1450...

The Middle Ages is the period of European history that ran for roughly a millennium from 500 AD to 16th century AD, when it is generally accepted that the Renaissance began (roughly 1450). You are correct; for the entire Middle Ages, there wasn't a printing press and mass produced Bibles, or books for that matter, for people to read (or learn to write). Even Charlemagne, King of the Franks from 768 to his death, couldn't read or write all that well (according to Kenneth Clark, British historian).

Notice with the printing press came the Renaissance, or "rebirth?" When the common folk began to read and write, the clergy and the rulers began to get worried...

[skepticscott]

9. It's no coincidence

that with the printing press also came the Reformation. When common folk could read and interpret the Bible for themselves, instead of just having selected parts spoon-fed to them, all hell broke loose.

[glinda]

2. Every time Staff/Faculty Health Insurance goes up so does Tuition. They are connected.

When will people ever get it? Geeeesh!

[cyberswede]

3. I worry...

My kids are 9 and 7. I can't imagine how much it will cost in another 10 years!

We have a 529 for each kid, but our budget doesn't allow us to put much in it. It will be a drop in the bucket, I'm afraid. I worked during college, and I expect my kids to do so as well, but there may come a point where it's just unaffordable. :(

[girl gone mad]

7. Higher education costs will have to fall soon.

Bubbles don't last forever.

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

8. Throwing grant/aid money at low income students only exasperates the issue.

The problem is not getting financial aid assistence to low income students who need it.
The problem is that cost-control needs implemented at universities where government financial aid is accepted.

[lildreamer316]

11. exacerbates.

Just sayin'

[Zoeisright]

14. LOL!

You certainly made your point with ease.

[marmar]

12. How dare the poor send their kids to college !!!

:eyes:

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

13. How dare you actually think about a statement !!!

An education (degree) has a value and a cost. They are not the same thing. I'd guesstimate the average person would pay about $20k-$30k (out of pocket) for a degree. Whether or not students get money from the government, that degree would still be worth $20-$30k per year. Colleges know this and they also know the amount of financial aid the average american gets. Colleges analyze the numbers and set tuition at the maximum rate people are willing to pay out of pocket without hurting their enrollment thereby skimming all the gov't cheese right off the top. If they're turning too many applicants away, their prices are too low and if they are under-enrolled their prices are too high. 90% of college students don't care because it wasn't their money to start with - they pay their $20k-$30k out of pocket cost and life goes on. When I was in school tuition jumped over 25% from when I started to when I finished. However, my year-to-year out of pocket cost never rose... was it a coincidence that tuition rose steadily with the financial aid I received?

Simplified example: I sell blueberries for $2 per basket.
I notice poorer people don't buy blueberries... they feel berries cost too much and are only "worth" about $0.50 to them.
Therefore I decide I can sell more blueberries if I accept WIC/FNS (food stamps). I sell out of blueberries every day.
I research WIC/FNS and realize they offer up to $3 discount on blueberries. So I raise my prices to $3.40 per basket.
Of course, the poor people still buy them because they "cost" 20% less (out of pocket) than they're "worth".
Blueberries cost poor people $0.40 out of pocket and I make $1.40 per basket more than I used to and still sell out.
If WIC/FNS raise thier assistence for berries, you bet I'll raise my price on them. Who is really benefiting there?

Colleges do this same thing. They are businesses - the employees are are just smarter than the average cubicle-jockey.
As long as colleges accept govn't financial aid with no strings attached... tuition will go up.
Which brings me back to my OP you seem to have been so keen on interpreting:
"Throwing grant/aid money at low income students only exacerbates the issue"

[benld74]

10. Mine is going to start at a JUCO, I lost it all in the crash last year,,

we will pay as she goes.
SHe can get a part time job and assist, like me and her mother did, live at home until she graduates.