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Tuition policy back in play
Written by Todd Engdahl on Feb 22nd, 2010. | Copyright © EdNewsColorado.org
Thank you for the information regarding the tuition discussion. Committee member Rief’s comment that higher tuition is essentially a “hidden tax”strikes at the core of the tuition discussion for public higher education throughout the United States. Public colleges and universities have been able to hold tuition rates down since the mid-nineteenth century because state governments were willing and able to subsidize the cost of education for state residents. The removal, or substantial reduction, in state appropriations to public institutions essentially shifts the cost of education to the students and their families. Typically the difference in tuition rates for non-resident students and state residents is the subsidy per resident student that a state is able to allocate. Absent that allocation tuition must increase to keep colleges and universities operational. As states are increasingly strapped with fiscal responsibilities for transportation infrastructure, Corrections systems, Medicaid caseloads, and K-12 education, it is evident that little is left for public higher education. The result is that these tuition discussions must occur and must be taken seriously and with educated insights into how funding for public higher education works (or doesn’t).
[...] The session came just a day after the Higher Education Strategic Planning Steering Committee conceptually approved a proposal that would allow state colleges and universities to set their own tuition and financial aid policies – after review by the Colorado Commission on Higher Education. (See this story for details.) [...]