This week marks the beginning of the semester for most colleges in New York State.\u00a0 As students begin their next collegiate experience, families tackle how to pay for it.<\/p>\n
American higher education has seen a dramatic shift in who pays for public college.\u00a0 America was once a society that valued college education and put its collective money where its mouth is by funding the bulk of the cost of that education.<\/p>\n
But since the 1980s, there has been a shift in the burden of paying for public college from government to the families of those in college.\u00a0 The clearest evidence of that shift has been the reduction state dollars going to public colleges and the dramatic increase in tuition over the last three decades.<\/p>\n
While state funding for the State University of New York (SUNY) has remained largely flat over the last few years, the total cost to maintain SUNY\u2019s and the City University of New York\u2019sexisting services has increased by nearly $200 million. The state made up the difference using hikes in public college tuition. Stagnant state support coupled with rising tuition has had an impact: Prior to the 2008 recession, tuition covered about half of SUNY\u2019s budget.Now, tuition covers more than 60% of SUNY\u2019s budget.<\/p>\n
These tuition increases are the result of a so-called \u201crational tuition\u201d policy.\u00a0 New York\u2019s law, described by proponents as \u201crational,\u201d hiked public college tuition each year for five years.The only thing rational about it is that it guarantees increases in the cost of attending a public college.\u00a0 As a result, New York families are paying more \u2013 and in some cases adding to an increasing college debt load.<\/p>\n
Nationwide, student loan debt is currently over $1 trillion and it is estimated to be $2 trillion by 2025.At New York\u2019s four University Centers 56% of graduates carry debt averaging over $22,000. Studies show that students burdened with student loan debt are less likely to start a business or own a home.This can create a ripple effect where current debt hamstrings future wealth growth\u2014the effect is even greater for low-income students and students of color.<\/p>\n
A college-educated workforce is in demand. A Georgetown University study found that, by 2018, nearly two-thirds of New York jobs would require a post-secondary education.Yet, 2013 Census data shows that less than half of New York adults hold an associate’s or bachelor’s degree.Tuition increases outpacing income growth, paired with decreased state investment, have eroded college affordability.<\/p>\n
But the New York model is not the only way.<\/p>\n
Other states are enacting another form of \u201crational tuition\u201d \u2013 they are either freezing tuition rates, or cutting the cost of attending public colleges and universities.<\/p>\n
A growing number of states are trying to rein in the price students and their families pay to attend public colleges and universities. Tuition rose sharply during the Great Recession after states cut higher education funding. Now student loan debt is topping $1 trillion nationally, and even upper-income families are worried\u00a0about rising college costs. As a result, legislatures are under pressure to bring prices down.<\/p>\n
In July, the state of Washington enacted a new law that cut in-state tuition. The state of Minnesota\u00a0passed legislation that freezes tuition at two-year colleges this fall and will cut tuition next year.\u00a0 The state of Ohio\u00a0froze in-state tuition for two- and four-year institutions. Wisconsin froze in-state tuition across the 26 campuses in its university system. The University of Maine System kept tuition flat for the fourth year in a row.<\/p>\n
New York\u2019s law, described as \u201crational,\u201d hiked public college tuition.\u00a0 At the end of the Spring, 2016, New York\u2019s law will expire.\u00a0 The debate on what to do about that law is heating up.\u00a0 What is the best way for New York to define rational from a student\u2019s perspective \u2013 rationally jacking up tuition or rationally keeping it at the same rate?\u00a0 This year\u2019s college students will soon know.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This week marks the beginning of the semester for most colleges in New York State.\u00a0 As students begin their next collegiate experience, families tackle how to pay for it. American higher education has seen a dramatic shift in who pays for public college.\u00a0 America was once a society that valued college education and put its […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1533"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1533\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1536,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1533\/revisions\/1536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}