l****z
发帖数: 29846 | 1 By CHRISTINE ARMARIO, Associated Press
June 12, 2012
When those college tuition bills come in, be prepared for sticker shock.
The average tuition at a four-year public university climbed 15 percent
between 2008 and 2010, fueled by state budget cuts for higher education and
increases of 40 percent and more at universities in states like Georgia,
Arizona and California.
The U.S. Department of Education's annual look at college affordability also
found significant price increases at the nation's private universities,
including at for-profit institutions, where the net price for some schools
is now twice as high as Harvard.
At Full Sail University, a film and art school in central Florida, the
average price of tuition, fees, books, and other expenses totals $43,990,
even when grants and scholarships are factored in. The average net price for
an incoming Harvard student: $18,277, according to the department. Net
price is cost of attendance minus grant and scholarship aid.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan said students need to be smart consumers and
states needs to do their part by making higher education a priority in
their budgets. Forty percent of states cut higher education spending last
year, the most important factor in tuition increases.
"As a nation, we need more college graduates in order to stay competitive in
the global economy," Duncan said. "But if the costs keep on rising,
especially at a time when family incomes are hurting, college will become
increasingly unaffordable for the middle class."
Pennsylvania State University had the highest in-state tuition for a four-
year public university at $15,250 during the 2010-11 school year. When the
costs of room, board and other expenses are factored in, the total rises to
$19,816, the fourth highest net price nationwide.
Bill Mahon, a spokesman for the school, said a 19.6 percent cut in state
funding last year, coupled with a decade of weak state support, "has left
Penn State increasingly reliant on students and their families to fund most
of the costs of their Penn State education."
Zach Zimbler, who graduated from Penn State University this spring with a
degree in information sciences, said his total tuition came out to about $50
,000 for four years. He now has loans totaling around $25,000. He said many
students don't realize how much debt they've amassed until it comes time to
pay.
"The students themselves don't really know what they're getting into," he
said.
Zimbler said he worked during school and feels confident about the value of
the education he received, even though it came with a high price tag. He's
working on starting his own software business.
The College Affordability and Transparency lists were first published last
year to fulfill a reporting requirement passed into law in 2008. The lists
track tuition and fees as well as the average net price at public, private
and for-profit colleges and universities.
It's one of several recent initiatives by the Department of Education to
increase student and parent awareness on the costs of higher education. Last
week, presidents from 10 colleges and universities agreed to provide
students information on costs, financial aid and monthly loan payments after
graduation in an easy-to-understand form. President Barack Obama also
issued a mandate to streamline the application process for those who want to
enroll in income-based repayment plans, which set a cap on loan payments
based on discretionary income.
Meanwhile, Republicans and Democrats in Congress are struggling against a
July 1 deadline to avert a doubling of interest rates on new federal student
loans for 7.4 million people.
The data released Tuesday shows increases for four-year, public institutions
that are similar what has been observed over the last decade, though Duncan
said costs have increased faster in recent years. Between 2001-02 and 2011-
12, in-state tuition and fees at public, four-year colleges increased at an
average rate of 5.6 percent each year, according to the College Board's 2011
report on trends in higher education pricing. That rate is higher than in
previous decades: In the 1980s, tuition increased at about 4.5 percent each
year, and in the 1990s at 3.2 percent.
"Obviously we're at a period of economic instability at the state level, so
you'll see among public institutions the increases in tuition and fees are a
lot of times a function of declines in state support," said Bryan Cook,
director of the Center for Policy Analysis at the American Council on
Education. "So we've not been surprised in seeing increases in tuition."
Certain states have been harder hit than others. Five of the 33 public
universities with the highest net price, for example, are in Ohio. Six
public universities in Georgia saw tuition increases that were higher than
40 percent. The University of California in Berkeley and Los Angeles also
saw big price jumps.
The data released by the Education Department goes up until the 2010-11
school year, and in some states, tuition increased again last year.
Cook advised students to look at the data in context: Some schools with big
rate increases, for example, still have tuition that is below the nationwide
average.
"I think there is more comprehensive information that could be provided
contextual information that could be provided for these lists if we really
want to provide students and families with the most information to make a
good decision about going to college," he said.
There were some bright spots in the data. Community colleges, Duncan noted,
remain one of the most consistently affordable options for higher education:
The average net price of a community college increased by less than 1
percent between 2007 and 2009. Tuition, room and board average $8,085 at a
public, two-year institution in 2010.
"While community colleges have mostly done their part, there is much more
the rest of us can and should be doing," Duncan said. "Keeping college
affordable is a shared responsibility." |
|
