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College Costs
Colleges are re-opening their doors and with the excitement of a new school year there is also sticker shock. As any college student will tell you, the costs of attending college are staggering. Tuition, fees, room and board costs of attending a private college has more than doubled since the 1970s, even accounting for inflation. It is not at all surprising to see the tuition and fees costs of attending a private college exceed a $30,000 – and then there are housing costs, often running the total cost of attending college near a staggering $50,000 per year. A college education has been worth the cost, since spending on college now is an investment that will pay off in the future. But as the costs of attending college continue to skyrocket, that argument has lost a lot of its punch. The median income in 2003 of a person with just a high school diploma was about $31,000 a year, but for a person with a bachelor’s degree it was nearly $50,000. Yet the amount of debt the average undergraduate is carrying has grown nearly 70 percent between 1999-2000 and 2003-2004 – and now stands at nearly $20,000. A college education’s economic advantage has been seriously eroded by the enormous increase in students’ debt. For students from affluent families, the rise in costs has – at least so far – been manageable. For students of more modest means, it has been more difficult. For those who could not afford private colleges, public colleges offered a real break. And while that is still the case, costs are accelerating there too. Over the past decade, the costs of attending SUNY have increased by nearly 100 percent. Even community college students are hard hit. According to a recent report by my colleagues at the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG), community college tuition is going up at a rate faster than inflation this Fall at all but three schools. Not only are college costs up, but community college students will also be hit by the rapid increase in gasoline prices. There is no doubt that part of the reason for the increasing costs of attending a public college is due to the increasing costs of doing business. Yet the cost in attending public college has been exacerbated by a deliberate state policy of reducing support for public colleges and shifting those costs to students and their families. Under New York law, for example, the state is supposed to pay a third of the community colleges’ costs, the local governments another third, and the students the remaining third. But the state has consistently failed to meet its legal obligations and so students are paying more than their share, while state and local governments pay less. These are the types of policies that make little sense. New York’s public college students already pay more than the national average to attend school – and community college costs are one of the highest in the nation. New York’s economic future hinges on the intellectual quality of its workforce. Policies that make it harder for students to obtain those skills are extremely shortsighted. Too many of New York’s policymaking reflects the political power of special interests. Unfortunately, colleges are not considered a power to be feared. Students don’t vote in large numbers and virtually never make campaign contributions. Colleges – particularly public ones – cannot blackmail public officials for more aid by threatening to flee the state if they don’t get their way. The political path of least resistance is to continue to jack up the costs on college students. If New York State is to maintain its share of the world’s brainpower, and not lose by students “voting with their feet” and attending colleges elsewhere, public policies must become more higher-education-friendly. Here are some ideas:
Yes it will cost money, but in an increasingly competitive world it would be an investment that makes sense. That’s all for now. I’ll be keeping an eye on the Capitol and will talk to you again next week.
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