Lower state support pushes college students’ costs upward
By Roy Ockert Jr.
May 26, 2015
‘Tis the season for tuition increases, and almost all of Arkansas’ public colleges and universities are getting in on the action, which complicates things especially for first-time students and their parents.
Almost any institution can find ways to cut costs, and many are doing just that. But colleges and universities are having to shift more of the burden for financing their operations to the students because of declining state support.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonpartisan research organization, reported recently that 47 states (all except Alaska, North Dakota and Wyoming) are spending less per student in the current academic year that they did in 2007-08 — an average of 20 percent less, or $1,805, when adjusted for inflation. Arkansas is spending 10.2 percent less, a little better than most.
Meanwhile, average tuition is increasing sharply at public 4-year colleges and universities — by an average of 29 percent since the 2007-08 school year, when adjusted for inflation. Arkansas schools collectively has been able to beat the average, boosting tuition by “just” 18.3 percent, 13the lowest rate in the country.
The cost of attending college is difficult to pin down because most institutions have resorted to additional mandatory fees.
For example, Arkansas State University at Jonesboro will charge in-state students $200 per credit hour as tuition in 2015-16. That’s $8 per hour more than this year. But the Board of Trustees also raised ASU’s mandatory athletic fee by $2 to $19 per hour and its facilities fee from $3 to $4 per hour.
Other mandatory per-hour fees per semester, according to ASU’s Web site, include: academic excellence, $6; technology, $10; infrastructure, $4; library, $6; recreation, $7; student union, $10; assessment, $5; student activity, $20; and yearbook, $10.
That will bring the total cost per credit hour cost to $301 for fall and spring terms, or $9,030. Of course, that doesn’t include room and board or other special fees that only some students must pay.
ASU’s additional fee structure is high compared to other Arkansas universities, but the overall cost will probably remain middle-of-the pack. Other institutions have been raising tuition and fees similarly.
The University of Arkansas board on Thursday approved a 3.8 percent increase for tuition and fees at its flagship Fayetteville campus. That will keep the state’s largest university also its most expensive by a comfortable margin.
Trying to compare total costs for the various institutions is difficult, but collegecost.ed.gov can help. That Web site provides, among other things, an average net price per year for each college or university, including both tuition and mandatory fees. The problem is the price is based on 2012-13 rates, some of which might have increased three times by now.
Nevertheless, its calculator shows the following average net costs per year for Arkansas 4-year universities and also the total percentage of increase between 2009 and 2011:
1. UA-Fayetteville, $12,057, up 20.7%;
2. UA-Little Rock, $9,793, up 36.1%;
3. UA-Monticello, $9,577, up 14.1%;
4. University of Central Arkansas, $9,348, up 1.6%;
5. ASU-Jonesboro, $8,984, up 12.4%;
6. Arkansas Tech, $8,137, up 7.6%;
7. Southern Arkansas University, $7,604, up 11.4%;
8. UA-Pine Bluff, $7,298, up 8.3%; and
9. UA-Fort Smith, $6,351, down 1.9%.
ASU President Dr. Charles Welch was somewhat indignant when discussing a proposed increase of 4 percent in tuition and fees before the board earlier this month.
“Each year it seems like we’re second-guessed and even criticized,” he said. “We bring [to the board] the proposals sheepishly ... almost apologetically.”
“Over the last five years the amount of money put into higher education by the state is zero-point-zero percent,” he continued. “Higher education needs adequate funding, just like K-12 schools. The state has determined it takes a 2.5 percent increase in funds every year for K-12 to maintain an adequate education. Why shouldn’t it be the same for higher education?”
Indeed, a state trying to play catchup on its percentage of college graduates in the work force in order to compete economically with other states must invest more in our children’s future. Instead, our political leaders acted more to preserve their own.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson campaigned on a promise to cut the state’s income tax, while budgeting “stable” funding for higher education. He made good on the first promise, but stable funding means you’re going backward.
Then lawmakers, to prove a political point on the state’s lottery scholarship program, cut funding in half for first-year college students — from $2,000 to $1,000. That’s ostensibly because the lottery isn’t providing as much revenue as we had hoped, but the Legislature could have appropriated funding to make up the difference. A capital gains tax cut for the wealthy was a higher priority.
Rapidly escalating costs are having several effects, all bad.
Student debt is climbing. America now has $1.2 trillion in outstanding student loans, far more than the $700 billion we owe on credit cards That’s a drag on the entire economy and will shackle the borrowers for many years to come.
Enrollment has slumped for most Arkansas institutions over the past three years — down 5 percent last year for the 4-year schools and 14 percent for the 2-year colleges.
That, in turn, brings less state funding, which is where the problem started.
Roy Ockert is editor emeritus of The Jonesboro Sun. He may be reached by e-mail at royo@suddenlink.net.