Tuition’s up and opportunity’s down

Two reports released this fall show how far we have to go to make higher education accessible to all our citizens. One study, an annual survey by the College Board, shows public university tuition increased by 10.5 percent this year, the second year in a row of double-digit increases.

For the 2004-05 academic year, the College Board reported, the average tuition and fees for in-state students at public four-year colleges and universities hit $5,132, up from $4,645 last year. At two-year public colleges, tuition and fees averaged $2,076. At private colleges, tuition and fees averaged $20,082—a 6 percent increase over last year.

“Until we publicly debate the quiet cost-shifting from state support to tuition that continues in far too many states, no amount of effort by our institutions to raise revenue and cut expenses will be able to preserve affordable tuition formulas, particularly at public colleges and universities,” American Council on Education president David Ward commented to the New York Times.

While increases so far above the 2.5 percent rate of inflation are telling, they are not the whole story, for most college students do not pay the full freight. Almost 75 percent of full-time undergraduates receive some form of financial aid. The College Board estimates that in 2003-04, the combination of grant aid and federal tax benefits averaged about $2,300 per student in two-year public colleges, over $3,300 at public four-year institutions and about $9,400 per student at private four-year institutions.

Despite that aid, however, another study released by the Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education contrasts two different realities for students in their college-going years. The “Fall 2004 Status Report” finds that most low-income students never consider college. Of those who do, many may attend for-profit or two-year institutions but most avoid more expensive colleges and most never graduate.

In 1999-2000, according to the institute’s data, 56 percent of college-age people—18 to 24 years old—went to college. Broken down by income, the percentages were 31 percent of students from families with incomes below $25,000 and 79 percent of students from high-income (more than $75,000) families. Pell also found that despite the levels of aid available, low-income students still paid the greatest percentage of family income to cover the cost of college. Total charges paid by low-income students accounted for 60 percent of their families’ income, compared with 17 percent for middle-income ($25,000 to $74,999) families and 5 percent for high-income families.