Since 2002, lawmakers said, tuition costs have grown from 12 percent of an average family’s budget to 19 percent. “It is much harder to send your kid to school today than it was 20 years ago,” said state Rep. Jeff Espich, a Republican lawmaker who chairs the budget committee, in the hearing. As a result of the public pressure, Indiana State University reduced its planned tuition increase for in-state students from 3.5 percent to 1.5 percent last week. And the Indiana presidents aren’t alone. Lawmakers in several states, including California, Michigan, and Florida, have asked university presidents to justify why tuition increases – many times double-digit percentages – are necessary. The presidents’ response, time and time again, has been to point the finger back at lawmakers… Between the 2007 and the current school year, state support per student for the University of California system dropped an estimated $4,700 per student. In the same time period, net tuition revenue per student only increased an estimated $3,500.

Read full article [here].
by Kevin Kiley, Inside Higher Ed.

Posted: October 19th, 2011, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.