College Enrollment Hurt By Rising Cost Of Tuition

[Dracos]

push to increase the number of college graduates in Kentucky to the national average may have been jeopardized by skyrocketing tuition, auditors concluded in a report released Wednesday.

State Auditor Crit Luallen said the findings suggest that Kentucky may not be able to meet the goal set by lawmakers when they passed higher education reforms 10 years ago. They wanted Kentucky to reach the national average by 2020.

The review by auditors from Luallen's office found that the total number of Kentuckians enrolled as full-time college students has grown by only 10 percent since 1998, and has actually fallen by 900 since 2003. To turn that trend around, auditors recommend reducing tuition for instate students and increasing financial aid to needy Kentucky students.

Auditors said tuition has increased from an average $2,424 a year at the state's public universities to $5,522, roughly 128 percent over the past eight years.

"The data calls for urgent and dramatic action," Luallen said in a written statement. "It simply must be a top priority of policy makers in Kentucky to make postsecondary education affordable for Kentuckians. Hopefully, this report can make this critical problem, already at a crisis point, a top issue this year."

The Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education estimates that, at the current pace, the state will fall short of its 2020 goal by 211,000.

In 2000, Kentucky had 402,000 college graduates with bachelor's degrees. At its current pace, the council estimates that the state will have 580,000 residents with bachelor's degrees in 2020, far short of the goal of 791,000.

Tom Layzell, president of the Council on Postsecondary Education, applauded the audit report, saying it brings needed attention to an important issue in an election year.

However, Layzell said the news isn't all bad because Kentucky has had a 20 percent increase in the number of four-year degrees since 1998. He called that "real progress" for the state while conceding that "we're going to have to pick up the pace."

Layzell said rising tuition alone isn't responsible for the decline in college enrollment. He said insufficient financial aid also could be a factor.

Luallen said the number of part-time students has also declined in the four-year institutions and the growth of part-time students has slowed in the state's community colleges.

The auditor's report found that some of the state's eight universities have been more successful in attracting nonresidents than residents. The number of nonresident students has grown by 39 percent since 1998.

Luallen said the audit report shows an "urgent need for a comprehensive review" of state funding for higher education, tuition policies and financial aid availability. She called on state officials to "provide adequate funding to ensure that tuition is set at a level that makes postsecondary education accessible to all residents."

http://www.wkyt.com/wymtnews/headlines/5820781.html?source=enews&c=y

[RedStateShame]

1. Which means less educated people, meaning....

...more Republican voters.

[HockeyMom]

2. More MILITARY Recruitments

Leave No Child Behind, ya know.

[SharonAnn]

3. Well, d'uh!

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

5. That was my reaction, too.

But I think my words were "No shit, Sherlock!". Increase the tuition way faster than inflation or wages, that's what happens.

There's nothing in the story indicating anyone's tracing the cause of the skyrocketing costs of college. Just a suggestion that the costs get paid by shifting the funding to taxpayers through financial assistance, or possibly saddling the students with more debt by offering easier loans.

Are the schools' real costs accelerating that quickly? Teacher salaries? (hah!) Administrators' salaries (you bet!) Any areas that can cut some fat in these schools? Or do they just get to set their own prices, unregulated and unmonitored? Jeebus, I sound almost Republican! But, just sayin', the cost is so much higher than when I went to school.

[Missy M]

4. People in this country are told to retrain after losing their jobs....

yet they can't afford college tuitions. Also, how many of our youth will be able to go on to higher education if they can't afford it. It seems everything is leaning towards the demise of the middle class.

[Nay]

6. Half the college diplomas issued aren't worth the paper they're

printed on, because the job the grad trained for has been shipped overseas. College tuition should be going DOWN, not up.

[Warpy]

7. They're pricing themselves out of business

Who's going to want to start life with a hundred thousand dollar debt?

My advice for the last 10 years has been to go into a skilled trade like plumbing or electrical work. There will always be a call for people to unblock plumbing and to redo light fixtures and it can't be offshored.

Two years and an associate's degree in business will allow people to open their own shops.

They'll be way ahead of liberal arts grads in middle management.

As for dumbing down, the dumbest people in the world are those 4 year grads who haven't opened a book in the 30 years since they graduated and are proud uvvit.

[damntexdem]

9. But you're assuming that in future the population will still have plumbing and lights.

You may be too optimistic. ;-)

Still, I educate them in gerontology; and one thing that we will definitely have more of, at least for a while, is old people. Now funding for services to care for old people, so to hire those trained in gerontology, that is more iffy.

[damntexdem]

8. A national problem, caused by state unwillingness to adequately support higher education.

I tell my students that college used to be thought to be the province of upper and upper-middle class kids, until the GI Bill after WWII, and the later expansion of higher ed to accommodate the Baby Boom, made it a birthright for much, though not all, younger people. And the greater education of the population was correctly seen to help increase national productivity, so more than pay for itself. But in recent decades, states have underfunded higher ed, causing tuition to rise ever higher, putting higher ed out of the reach of more and more people, and a bigger burden for many more who do make it into college. Meanwhile, we've let much of our manufacturing base, and much of the rest of our economic base, to dribble away elsewhere. So even if the country renews its intent to make higher ed available to all, it may not be able to pay for it.

Still, I salute any state that decides that makes such a commitment. Let's see whether Kentucky is willing and able to follow up such intent with adequate support.