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Why Tuition Has Skyrocketed at StateSchoolsByCATHERINE RAMPELL

MARCH 2, 2012 5:37 PM March 2, 2012 5:37 pm 87 Comments

I have anarticletoday about the states long-term divestment from public highereducation, and what that means for students.

As Im sure you know, college tuitions have been skyrocketing for decades withgrowth outpacing the Consumer Price Index, gasoline and even that great bugaboo ofout-of-control costs, health care.Heres a chart showing price changes in these categories. The lines represent the price ina given year, as a percent of the price in 1985. For example, if a line reaches 200, thatmeans prices in that year were 200 percent of those in 1985, or twice as high.

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics

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College tuition and fees today are 559 percent of their cost in 1985. In other words, theyhave nearly sextupled (while consumer prices have roughly doubled).

Theres a lot of debate about why college costs have risen so much.Many people assumethat schools are spending too much money on frivolous things like climbing walls andJacuzzis. Thats true for a handful of elite schools, but not for a vast majority.

Some of the rising cost has to do with other services schools have been adding over thelast few decades, like mental health counselors and emergency alert systems. Andcertainly there are other inefficiencies that have crept into the system as highereducation has become more things to more people.

But at least at public colleges and universities which enroll three out of every fourAmerican college students the main cause of tuition growth has been huge statefunding cuts.

Every recession, states face a budget squeeze as their tax revenue falls and demand for

their services rises. They have to cut something, and higher education is often a primetarget.

Why? Struggling states have to prioritize other mandatory spending, like Medicaid.Higher education usually falls under the discretionary spending part of the budget and in fact is often one of the biggest programs, if not the biggest, in the discretionarycategory.

State legislators also know colleges have other sources of funds to turn to.

If youre a state legislator, you look at all your states programs and you say, Well, wecant make prisoners pay, but we can make college students pay, said RonaldEhrenberg, the director of the Cornell Higher Education Research Institute and a trusteeof the State University of New York System.

College students do end up paying more. But in the past, after the economy recovered,most states did not fully restore the funds that were cut. As cuts accumulated in eachbusiness cycle, so did tuition increases.

Heres a chart showing whats happened to state support and actual tuition (whatstudents pay after receiving financial aid, not sticker price) over the last 25 years. Itpresents just how much cost-shifting has been going on:

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Sources: State Higher Education Executive OfficersFigures are per full-time equivalentstudent, in constant 2010 dollars adjusted by SHEEO Higher Education CostAdjustment (HECA).

The trend does not look likely to reverse itself, either.

Sure, state tax revenues are growing again, but so are state spending obligations. Stateswill soon have to pay out trillions in public pensions for the retiring baby boomergeneration squeezing the funds for training the next generation of workers even more.

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Wonkblog

The Tuition is Too Damn High, Part III The threereasons tuition is rising

By Dylan Matthews August 28, 2013

There are two things that can cause the net price of college for a family to increase. One is that the college spends

more. That could mean paying faculty more, or building more sports arenas, or conducting more research --

whatever the reason, spending rises and they ask students and their families to pick up the tab in the form of high

uition and/or lower financial aid.

The second is that the college needs to ask students to pay more to fund current spending. If, for instance, state

governments were to cut subsidies for public colleges and universities, those institutions could choose to raise

uition (rather than, say, cut spending or solicit alumni donations) to make up the difference. This is a cost shift.

The answer for higher ed? Well, there are many answers.

This is perhaps the single most important thing to know about the higher-education sector: Its not one thing.

Community colleges are not suffering from the same problems as private, four-year universities. Public research

nstitutions are not in the same boat as private masters institutions.

There are basically three different stories happening, to three different groups of schools. All the data here is from

he Delta Cost Project, which is the best source of information on college spending and revenue. Its numbers are

based on the Department of Educations Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), which is

basically the only source for most data on higher ed but which is nearly impossible fo r laymen to navigate. Deltas

been doing yeomans work summarizing what IPEDS tells us.

Story One: Soaking the students

Whats happening:Lower spending, and cost shifts from the government to students.

Where is it happening:Public schools that arent big research universities.

Number of students enrolled:6.7 million (51.1 percent of the 13.2 million students for whose school Delta Cost

Project has data.).

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Explanation:At public colleges and universities, the story is mostly that states have cut higher education funding

and schools are making up for it with increased tuition.

Public community colleges, the largest category of higher education institution, have seen real, per full-time stude

spending fall from 2000 to 2010. So theyre actually spending less.

And yet, over that same period, community colleges saw tuition revenue per full-time student increaseby about 4

percent in real terms. Perversely, the powers that be at community colleges have been cutting what they spend on

students, and then making those students pay even more for a cheaper-to-produce product.

At public masters and bachelors schools that is, public institutions that offer traditional four-year curricula bu

arent research schools spending has been basically stagnant over the past decade. Whats more, most years in t

2000s actually saw spending decline relative to 2000, not increase, even though tuition rose.

The problem at these schools is not out of control spending. The issue is that the schools are getting money they

used to get from the government from students, which makes the product more expensive to families even though

overall costs are unchanged -- or, in the case of community colleges, lower.

Story Two: Just throwing money around and getting it from wherever

Whats happening:Spending is increasing, and so is tuition, but the tuition increases cant keep pace with the new

spending.

Where is it happening:Research universities, both public and private.

Number of students enrolled:4.7 million (35.5 percent).

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Explanation:Between 2000 and 2010, the average net tuition that is, the tuition actually paid after financial a

aken into consideration at public research universities (the second biggest category of school by enrollment)

ncreased from $5,469 to $8,611, a difference of $3,142. Their spending per full-time student increased from

$33,208 to $37,125, or $3,917.

This can't be explained merely by government policy. The universities weren't keeping spending the same and just

financing it through different means. State and local subsidies fell by $1,732 per full-time student from 2000 to2010, but federal subsidies increased by $2,927 per student, and profits from associated endeavors like hospitals

ncreased by $1,952 per student.

n fact, overall revenue increased by $5,793 per student, almost double the increase in per-student spending. Pub

research universities could have kept tuition stagnant and still had $2,651 more per student to work with, which

could finance a good share of the actual spending increase. But they wanted more money than that, so they increa

uition too. Cost shifting, la whats happening at other public schools, doesn't really have anything to do with the

ncreases in public research university tuition.

Meanwhile, private research universities -- think Georgetown, or Harvard -- spent $12,435 more per student in 20

han they did in 2000, and charged $3,209 more in tuition. Just as with their public research university

counterparts, there's no cost shifting going on here, really. What's happening is a huge increase in spending with

uition acting as just one tool to fund it.

Story Three: Spending hard but soaking students even harder

Whats happening: Spending is increasing, and so is tuition, but the tuition increases are bigger than the spending

ncreases. The leftover money is going to make up for lost donation money.

Where it is happening: Private non-research colleges and universities, such as liberal arts colleges.

Number of students enrolled:1.8 million (13.5 percent percentages dont sum to 100 because of rounding).

Explanation:At private masters and bachelors schools that is, private schools that arent research institutions

and typically offer at most a masters or at most a bachelors, respectively whats going on has something in

common with both of the above stories.

Between 2000 and 2010, average spending per student at private masters universities grew by 5.9 percent in rea

erms, a pretty mild increase compared to other categories.

Revenue -- which includes tuition, but also donations, endowment, etc. -- has also been stagnant. Revenue per

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student was $22,625 in 2000 (in 2010 dollars), and bounced around that mark through the rest of the decade. Bu

uition grew 23.4 percent between 2000 and 2010, which served mainly to make up for declining donations and

endowment revenue (which actually went negative at the nadir of the recession). A very similar story can be seen i

he data on private liberal arts, or bachelors, schools, albeit with a steeper increase in spending.

As with their public counterparts, these schools are primarily seeing cost shifts rather than spending increases, bu

heir shifts are from donors to students, rather than from taxpayers to students.

====

There's no simple takeaway here. But three broad types of problems emerge. Research universities are just spend

oo much. Theyre spending so much that even their record increases in tuition cant fully pay for it. Figuring out

whats going wrong with them entails figuring out why theyre spending so much, and why that spending has been

growing.

But other public universities are, for the most part, just using tuition increases to replace money lost as states cut

higher education spending. In the case of public community colleges, even their huge tuition increases arent enou

o let spending remain constant. Even with higher prices, they still have to cut spending.

Other private schools are seeing a mix of the two phenomena. At non-research private schools, spending is

ncreasing, but tuition is increasing more. That both covers the new spending and makes up for declining revenue

from donations.

f tuition increases are going to stop, most public schools need to figure out a way to get the money they were onc

getting from state government without jacking up prices. Well tackle the question of how best to do that in the ne

nstallment.

Public research universities and private schools, by contrast, need to figure out how to get their spending under

control, and in the case of non-research private schools boost non-tuition revenue. Parts five through eight w

examine theories for why their spending is so out of control, and how best to rein it in.

Recommended by

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MONEYBOX A BLOG ABOUT BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS.

APRIL 6 2015 11:45 AM

The New York Times Offers One of the Worst Explanations Youll Read of WhyCollege Is So Expensive

y Jordan Weissmann

Students at the UCLA.

Photo by David McNew/Getty Images

Over the weekend, the New York Timesmanaged to publish one of the most confused op-eds on the price of higher education that I've e

had the displeasure of reading. Paul Campos, a law professor at the University of Colorado, would like us all to believethat college de

who say they have to raise tuition because of government funding cuts are just fibbing. "In fact, public investment in higher education in

America is vastly larger today, in inflation-adjusted dollars, than it was during the supposed golden age of public funding in the 1960s," h

writes. According to Campos, the idea that a degree costs more because states have pulled back their help "flies directly in the face of t

acts."

Not really. There are a great number of complicated, interlocking reasons that a bachelor's degree costs so much more today than it use

o. And dwindling government subsidies are one of the key issues.

Advertisement

Overall, public spending on higher education has, as Campos argues, risen dramatically over the long term. But so have the number of

Americans attending college. When administrators say that government support is shrinking, what they usually mean is that per studen

appropriations have fallen. This is a crucial point. Someone has to foot the bill for each and every undergraduate's education. If taxpaye

don't do it, then families have to pick up the slack themselves.

Campos halfway understands this. "While state legislative appropriations for higher education have risen much faster than inflation, tottate appropriations per student are somewhat lower than they were at their peak in 1990," the professor writes. But he attempts to sco

around that fact with a rather poorly constructed analogy.

It is disingenuous to call a large increase in public spending a cut, as some university administrators do, because a huge programmatic expansion features somewhat lower

per capita subsidies. Suppose that since 1990 the government had doubled the number of military bases, while spending slightly less per base. A claim that funding for military

bases was down, even though in fact such funding had nearly doubled, would properly be met with derision.

The military base comparison is weak for a couple of reasons. First, it obscures more than it reveals. We worry about per-student fundin

higher ed because students pay tuition. Service members, of course, do not pay tuition, though they do draw a salary and would probab

be quite unhappy were their paychecks slashed. If that happened, some might reasonably be tempted to accuse the Pentagon of cutting

ervice member compensation, even while defense spending rose overall. Likewise, it's fair to worry about declining student subsidies, e

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while total education spending heads higher. But Campos' point fails on a more basic level, too. If the U.S. government wanted to run it

military bases using slightly fewer personnel to save money, it might be able to do so. Sadly, nobody has yet figured out a way to run a

university using drastically fewer professors without sacrificing some educational quality (and no, the Internet has not changed that). W

chools have managed to restrain their spending by paying masses of part-time adjunct faculty a pittance, the cost of instruction is st

going up. Until someone comes up with a brilliant strategy for making teaching a more efficient endeavor, the fact that states provide

colleges with a smaller sum of cash per student than they did 25 years ago will mean that, for all intents and purposes, education subsid

have been cut. Academia is simply not prepared to do more with less.

To his credit, Campos is at least gesturing towards an important point. Even in years when states increased their per-student education

pending, public colleges still raised their prices faster than inflation. And while schools tend to up tuition when legislators cut their bud

hey don't usually lower it when the subsidies get restored (see the graph below ). Instead, they lock in the extra revenue so that they ca

pend more per undergrad. Where has that money gone? Here, Campos is more on point. As he writes, universities are spending an

ncreasing share of their budgets on administration. In other words, the bloat really has grown in higher ed, and it's costing students.

Andrew Gillen

But that doesn't change the fact that government cutbacks have contributed to the problem. There have been moments when universit

profligacy has been the major driver of tuition increases. At others, contracting state support has played a critical role. This has especia

been the case in these days of post-recession budget austerity. Depending on who'scalculating, states are giving schools somewhere

around 25 to 30 percent fewer dollars per student than they were 15 years ago. And someone has had to make up the difference. Namecollege kids.

You might notice that, contra Campos' article, the graph I've included shows per-student subsidies peaking in 2001, not 1990. I'm not really sure w

he got that 1990 was the high point. I'm using a graph by Education Sector that adjusts for inflation using the Consumer Price Index. Some people

on numbers fromthe State Higher Education Executive Officers, which use a idiosyncratic inflation index specifically designed for universities, bu

hey also put the peak at 2001. The College Board reachesa little further back and puts the high point in the mid 1980s.

*Update, April 6, 2015, 12:42 p.m.: I updated this paragraph to better spell out why Campos' military analogy doesn't really work. Frankly, the

original version was also too glib.

*

1

NEWS & POLITICS

POLITICS

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9/24/2015 Marco Rubio's Economic Plan Calls For Students To Sell Themselves To Private Investors | ThinkProgress

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2015/07/07/3677543/marco-rubios-economic-plan-calls-students-sell-private-investors/

POLITICS

Marco Rubios Economic Plan Calls For Students To

Sell Themselves To Private Investors

BY ALICE OLLSTEINJUL 7, 2015 1:42PM

Florida Senator and Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio described his economic platform

in a speech Tuesdayin Chicago, touching on well-worn GOP prioritiesincluding slashing corporate

taxesfrom 35 to 25percent, further deregulating theprivate sector, restricting family immigration,andresisting calls toraise the minimum wage. Takingseveral specificshots at Democratic frontrunner

Hillary Clinton, Rubiosaid his plan would avoid pumping more of todays money into yesterdays

programs, and bring the U.S. into the future.

In the speech, Rubio also called for a revolutionized higher education system. If elected president,

hepromised to bustthe cartelof existing colleges anduniversities by loosening the rules for

accreditation so that innovative, low-cost competitors can courtstudents. But critics say the

government accreditation process is already far too loose, allowing predatory for-profit chainslike

Corinthian Colleges to win federal approval and funding even as they mislead students into paying foressentially worthlessdegrees.

He also touted the Student Right to Know Before You Go Act he co-sponsored with Oregon

Democrat Ron Wyden a plan extremely similar to one President Obama pushed forlast year that

ranks colleges by how much their tuition costs and how much money their graduates make.

Lamenting the shadow of debt hovering over millions of graduates, Rubio then proposed a model

already suggestedby his rival Governor Chris Christie (R-NJ): allowing rich individuals or hedge funds

to pay a students tuition and collect their investment back post-graduation.

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CREDIT: AP

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9/24/2015 Marco Rubio's Economic Plan Calls For Students To Sell Themselves To Private Investors | ThinkProgress

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2015/07/07/3677543/marco-rubios-economic-plan-calls-students-sell-private-investors/

It may result in a profit for the investor or it may not but unlike with loans, none of the risk lies with

the student, Rubio said.

He expanded on this idea in a speech last year:

Lets say you are a student who needs $10,000 to pay for your last year of school. Instead of

taking this money out in the form of a loan, you could apply for a Student Investment Plan

from an approved and certified private investment group. In short, these investors would pay

your $10,000 tuition in return for a percentage of your income for a set period of time after

graduation lets say, for example, 4% a year for 10 years.

This group would look at factors such as your major, the institution youre attending, your

record in school and use this to make a determination about the likelihood of you finding a

good job and paying them back.

Unlike with loans, you would be under no legal obligation to pay back that entire $10,000.

Your only obligation would be to pay that 4% of your income per year for 10 years, regardlessof whether that ends up amounting to more or less than $10,000.

But these Student Investment Plans, which also have the Orwellian name human capital contracts,

raise many serious concerns. For one, investors may refuse to cover entire fields of students not likely

to bring in the big bucks after graduation, or would charge them a staggeringly high percentage of

their income. For those backing this plan, such as the conservative think tank American Enterprise

Institute (AEI), this poses no problem.

Isnt this unfair to those wanting to be librarians, teachers, social workers, etc., since they wouldhave to forego more of their incomes to satisfy the human capital contract? Not really, writes AEI

Adjunct Scholar Richard Vedder. Society puts a relatively low value on those jobs.

Additionally, following Rubios math of 4 percent over 10 years, a graduate would have to earn an

extremely low salary for the investor notto make a profit. Vedder and other advocates of the plan are

less cautious, and have voiced supportfor plans that take as high as 25 percent of a graduates salary

for multiple decades after they enter the workforce.

The National College Access Network and other groups have warnedthat such a plan could cost

students even more than high-interest federal loan programs, diverting away money those graduatescould have used to save for retirement or buy a house.

Rubios proposal is similar to the Pay It Forward, Pay It Back model currently being explored by the

state of Oregon with one crucial difference. In Oregons plan, the investor is the democratically-

elected state government, so when graduates repay their loans that money can go back into public

education. Under Rubios version, the money would go into the pockets of investors.

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Business

College dropouts have debt but no degree

Correction:An earlier version of this article incorrectly said that half of students who take out loans to enroll

wo-year for-profit colleges never finish. The statistic applies to borrowers at four-year for-profit colleges. The

article also misstated the name of the organization that did the study. It is the Education Sector, not the Educati

Trust. This version has been corrected.

ByYlan Q. Muiand Suzy Khimm May 28, 2012

As the nation amasses more than $1 trillion in student loans, education experts say a vexing new problem has

emerged: A growing number of young people have a mountain of debt but no degree to show for it.

Nearly 30 percent of college students who took out loans dropped out of school, up from fewer than a quarter of

students a decade ago, according to arecent analysisof government data by think tank Education Sector. College

dropouts are also among the most likely to default on their loans, falling behind at a rate four times that of

graduates.

That is raising new questions about the wisdom of decades of public policy that focused on increasing access to

higher learning but paid less attention to what happens once students arrive on campus. And some education expe

have begun to argue that starting college and going into debt to pay for it without a clear plan for a diploma is

recipe for disaster.

They have the economic burden of the debt but they do not get the benefit of higher income and higher levels of

employment that one gets with a college degree, said Jack Remondi, chief operating officer at Sallie Mae, the

nations largest private student lender. Access and success are not linking up.

The Obama administrationsays it is trying to address the issue by coupling its goal of ensuring that high school

students are prepared for at least one year of higher education with new targets for college graduation rates.

The plightofnon-completers has grown in magnitude as student debt tops $1 trillion, according to the Consume

Financial Protection Bureau. In addition, the sputtering economy has forced a growing number of students to ma

difficult choices between the benefits of a degree and the burden of paying for it. More students are balancing the

studies with full- or part-time jobs or signing up for a reduced course load to save money, increasing the likelihoo

hat they will not graduate.

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According to a 2009 study by Public Agenda, half of college dropouts said work was a major factor in their decisio

Only a quarter said they had spent too much time socializing.

Money and time

In the end, its about money and time, said Anthony Carne-vale, director of the Center on Education and the

Workforce at Georgetown University. Theres almost a synergy between the two that will knock you out of schoo

The cost to the economy is roughly half a trillion dollars, he said. Although college dropouts make more than thos

with only a high school diploma, he said they earn about a million dollars less than college graduates over their

careers.

Malainie Smith spent a year at a small liberal-arts college in Massachusetts before deciding to go to nursing schoo

She was halfway through her program at Simmons College in Boston when she took what she thought would be a

break of one semester. When she tried to return, she found she could no longer get a loan.

Smith said that left her in a Catch-22 situation. She had to quit school but still owed about $100,000 to the Verm

Student Assistance Corp. (VSAC), a public nonprofit student lender. Her monthly payments are about $400. Thre

years after she left Simmons, she is now a waitress a recent promotion from her position as a hostess.

Im not getting high-end-

paying jobs, Smith said. Theres more potential than this.

Scott Giles, a vice president at VSAC, said he could not discuss the details of Smiths situation, citing privacy reaso

But he said the lender often uses the flexibility of its status as a public nonprofit to accommodate students in need

We want all of these people to not only get into school but actually complete, he said. We bend over backwards

ry and make sure that thats possible.

Still, Giles said part of his organizations mission is to ensure that students have the chance to go to college, even

hough it knows that some of them will never finish. The benefits may take a generation to play out, he said:

Students whose parents attended at least some college are more likely to enroll themselves, according to his grou

research.

There are ways in which the access agenda and the completion agenda are at odds, he said. Folks have defined

failure to obtain a degree as just that failure. But that doesnt necessarily mean that the resources you put into

hat student up to that point were wasted.

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Burgeoning for-profit sector

College enrollment has swelled by 38 percent during the past decade to more than 20 million, according to

government data. But lawmakers and regulators have begun casting a wary eye on the burgeoning market of for-

profit institutions with low graduation rates and high student debt loads.

According to Mark Kantro-witz, a student loan expert and founder of FinAid.org, students who receive a bachelor

degree from a for-profit college will have an average debt of more than $41,000. Students graduating from publi

universities are expected to have roughly half that debt.

Not only do their students amass more debt, but for-profit colleges also saw the biggest jump in borrowers who

drop out, although every type of institution saw increases. A study by the Education Sector found that more than

half of students who take out loans to enroll in four-year for-profit colleges never finish. At traditional nonprofit

and public schools, the percentage of students with loans who started college in 2003 and dropped out within six

years is about 20 percent.

By comparison, about 8 percent of Americans between the ages of 16 and 24 dont have a high school degree,

according to government data.

As college became a mass institution in America, it started looking like high school. But unlike high school, we did

build a system that was designed to keep people in, Carnevale said. If we had a 40 percent dropout rate in high

school, wed think we were in a national crisis.

The Post Co. owns the for-profit education company Kaplan, Inc., which provides more than half of the parent

companys revenue.)

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The Obama administration said it has made increasing the college graduation rate by 2020 one of its top educatio

priorities. Some schools have also tried to streamline majors and course offerings to help ensure students stay on

rack. Education experts say that many students are not prepared for the more rigorous course work in college, a

hat many schools do not offer enough guidance for young people trying to navigate the first steps of their adult

ives. As a result, students may not see the payoff in finishing college.

Marian Castelli of Connecticut said her daughter dropped out of the University of Hartford after one year, in par

because she was racking up more debt than she thought she could afford. Her daughter studied dance performan

and was on the deans list but suffered multiple injuries. And with tuition of $20,000 a year, every day mattered.

Castelli said she recalled her daughter telling her, I dont think I want to go back to college. I dont know how Id e

pay off $80k in debt with a four-year degree.

Castelli responded, I couldnt argue with that.

Related content:

OPINION | Samuelson: Its time to ditch the college-for-all push

Why Romney and Obama are education twins

Senate fails to agree on student-loan rate freeze

More business coverage:

Newly identified computer virus, used for spying, is biggest ever discovered

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D.C.s tax-sale system doesnt warn homeowners, some say

Read more business headlines

Ylan Q. Mui is a financial reporter at The Washington Post covering the Federal Reserve

the economy.

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College Textbooks Could Be FreeUnder Legislation Introduced In

CongressThe Huffington Post | ByTyler KingkadePosted: 11/27/2013 5:12 pm EST Updated:12/02/2013 8:25 am EST

Legislation introduced in Congress could make buying expensive textbooks a thing of the

past.

The bill sponsored by by Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Al Franken (D-Minn.) would create

a grant program for colleges and universities to "create and expand the use of textbooks that

can be made available online" and offered with free access to the public. Students -- and

anyone else for that matter -- would have access to digital textbooks and not be bound tobuying the latest edition stocked in a campus bookstore.

Thebill,named the "Affordable College Textbook Act," was filed by Durbin and Franken

earlier this month. Acomplementary billwas drafted in the House by Reps. Rubn Hinojosa

(D-Texas) and George Miller (D-Calif.).

Durbin cited the success of a $150,000 grant to the University of Illinois forits Open Source

Textbook Initiative.Thanks to the grant, UI faculty were able to develop a book that's

available to anyone for free and can be updated when new information becomes available.

Similar results were achieved at the University of California-Davis as a result ofa $250,000

grant fromthe National Science Foundation."This bill can replicate and build on this success and help make the cost of attending college

more affordable," Durbin said in a statement.

One of the problems with traditional textbooks is that an added chapter can render an

edition worthless,preventing students from saving moneyby buying used copies.

The cost of college textbooks increased 812 percent since 1978, or three times the rate of

inflation, according to data from the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor

Statisticsanalyzed by University of Michigan economist Mark Perry.A Government

Accountability Office report found college textbook priceswent up 82 percent in just the

past 10 years.As a result,seven out of 10 undergraduates admitto skimping out on purchasing at least

one textbook, according to a 2011 survey by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group.

The legislation also calls for a report from the U.S. Department of Education to the Senate's

education committee by mid-2016 detailing adoption of open textbooks and how much it

saves students. By July 2017, the Comptroller General of the United States would have to

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submit a report on what has caused changes to price of college textbooks and the impact

open textbooks would have on the cost of regular, traditional ones.

"The dirty secret about textbooks is that they don't have to be so expensive given the rise of

technology," said Matthew Segal, co-founder of OurTime.org, which endorses the bill. "Even

worse, if you put textbook debt in larger context with student debt, the affordability ofcollege is becoming less and less tenable, and, as a result, the American dream is becoming

more difficult for the next generation to attain."

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Katherine Burkhart

Student Loan Interest Rate Deal DoesLittle To Help Low-Income College

StudentsPosted: 08/07/2013 4:00 pm EDT Updated: 08/07/2013 4:00 pm EDT

WASHINGTON -- Regardless of whether Congress can pass legislation to address the rise in

interest rates on federally subsidized student loans, it will be small consolation for those

college students who are homeless or unable to afford food.

Following weeks of heated rhetoric surrounding thedoubling of interest rates to 6.8

percenton subsidized Stafford loans, abipartisan billpassed the House last week. The

White House-endorsed deal ties interest rates to financial markets, allowing undergraduate

students to borrow at 3.9 percent interest for the 2013-14 school year, though the rate may

climb in the future.

"The student loan interest rate debate has really been about ameliorating a small symptom

of a much larger disease," said Michael Dannenberg, director of higher education policy

atthe Education Trust."And the disease is that college costs too damn much."

Thecost of tuition at four-year institutionsgrew an average 6.7 percent and at two-year

schools by 7.4 percent between the 2011-12 and 2012-13 academic years, according to a

report published by the National Center for Education Statistics, a rate more than twice that

of inflation. But also on the rise are fees for on-campus housing and meal plans, both of

which are frequently required for students, particularly incoming freshmen.

On average, room and board prices surpassed the cost of in-state tuition at public

institutions, adding $8,652 to students' financial load, the NCES reports. Coupled with

additional costs like transportation, most public college students can expect to pay $10,000

more than suggested by their institution's sticker price, and institutions across the country

are seeing a growing demand for help in the form of emergency housing and on-campus

food bank resources.

During the 2010-11 school year alone, over 33,000 students self-identified as homeless on

the Free Application for Federal Student Aid,the Palm Beach Postreported. Because

universities often rely on students to provide information about their off-campus living

arrangements, data on the number of homeless college students is difficult to collect, but

some college communities are organizing to help in theabsence of governmental support.

One such organization is the Human Services Resource Center at Oregon State University.

Program coordinator Clare Cady explained that the student-proposed initiative has served

since 2010 as a way to unite and mobilize a number of programs for low-income students on

campus.

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"Not everybody could make ends meet ... and you can't be successful in school if you don't

have access to even the most basic resources," Cady said.

While emergency housing resources, food stamp applications and subsidies for meals and

health insurance are available, the HSRC is perhaps best known in the area for its

emergency food bank.

"The number of people we serve has increased each year," said Lydia Elliott, OSU food

pantry coordinator. "In the past year alone, we were able to serve 2,583 people from 1,083

households."

Becca Seul, an academic adviser at Middle Tennessee State University, is similarly charged

with the task of supporting students with the highest levels of need on campus.

"Since August 2011, we've had roughly 70 students verified, by federal definition, as

homeless or at risk of homelessness," Seul said. "More and more 'unaccompanied' studentswere entering college, and many are barely able to get enough aid to attend, much less feed

themselves."

Seul explained "the pantry began because I saw the need increase." MTSU's pantry, stocked

entirely by donations, has distributed over 3,700 pounds of food since October 2012.

According to Seul, "the support for low-income students is definitely growing at MTSU,

[but] we are often heartbroken that the need even exists."

For the most financially disadvantaged students, who often have challenges with college

access, the expense is simply the next hurdle in a series. Not only are low-income students

disproportionately affected by the high cost of attending college, but they also encounter

significant obstacles to enrolling in the first place.

A student's family income is closely tied to SAT scores,College Board data reveals,putting

low-income students at a marked disadvantage. For these students, logistical obstacles often

persist even after they have been admitted to college, Harvard University researchers

Benjamin Castleman and Lindsay Page found.

Page and Castleman have extensively researched "summer melt," the phenomenon

describing students' failure to appear on the campus of the college to which they have

committed.

"In the summer in between high school graduation and college enrollment, there are a

number of tasks that kids need to attend to," Page explained. "Nobody 'owns' them and is

thinking about the support that students might need, [so] they have no designated

institutional support for completing those tasks."

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This lack of support is particularly problematic for first-generation college students, Page

said, as their familial and social networks have little knowledge of processes like waiving

insurance requirements or applying for appropriate aid packages.

Working alongsideuAspire,a college affordability program headquartered in Boston,

Castleman and Page found the vast majority of topics on which students seek help are issuesrelated to college financing. But there's still much room for policymakers to work on

improving college affordability beyond the relatively minor student loan interest rate deal,

Castleman said.

"[The deal is] built on this assumption that when the interest rate changes, students and

their families are going to be aware of what that means, and ... will understand when they

have to pay, what they have to pay and how much they have to pay," Castleman explained.

"We need to be focusing on getting students quality and simplified information, so they are

able to access help when they need it."

Matthew Segal, president of millennial advocacy organizationOurTime.org,pointed outthat other large consumer purchases often come with that type of disclosure.

"When you shop for any other good, be it a car or a home, you're given information as a

consumer about what you're buying," Segal said. "But colleges aren't always disclosing

statistics about things like the average level of student debt. So students can't 'shop for

colleges' to make an informed choice, like they would for any other major purchase."

Segal agreed that congressional fixation on student loan interest rates, "while important for

future debt levels, is -- in contrast with the larger issue of college cost -- really a distraction."

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POLITICOPell grad rates revealedByCAITLIN EMMA09/24/15, 10:04 AM EDT

PELL GRAD RATES REVEALED:Data in a new report [http://bit.ly/1NMNFsh]on thegraduation rates of Pell grant recipients deliver a powerful blow to those who questionwhether taxpayer dollars are being wasted, or whether most low-income students areeven capable of completing college, the authors say. The Education Trust examinedPell graduation rates at 1,149 four-year public and private nonprofit schools, and foundthat at the institutional level, the average graduation gap between Pell and non-Pellrecipients is 5.7 percentage points. More than a third of the colleges have smaller gapsor no gap. But at the national level, Andrew H. Nichols of Ed Trust notes, the graduation

rate for Pell recipients is still just 51 percent 14 percentage points lower than the non-Pell rate.

To close the larger national gap, Nichols said, will require addressing an evenmore challenging matter -- enrollment stratification. Pell students are twice as likely astheir peers to enroll in non-selective colleges that have very low graduation rates. Eveninstitutions with similar missions and student demographics may have vastly differentgraduation results, Nichols says. His year-long research looked at data from statehigher education systems, individual colleges, U.S. News and World Report and IPEDS.While the new College Scorecard includes some outcomes data for Pell recipients, itomits students who dont receive federal aid, making good equity comparisons

impossible, Ed Trust says. The group wants the feds to require colleges to regularlyreport Pell grantee graduation rates.

Speaking of the scorecard,the Postsecondary Data Collaborative, which includesabout two dozen education and research groups (including Ed Trust), said Wednesdaythat while the new data published in the tool are "of critical importance," improvementand expansion are imperative. The solution? A student unit record system, of course.

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Solving the College AffordabilityCrisis Requires Yanking at theRootPublished on Feb 11, 2015 byAndrew Nichols

Last week, aPOLITICO Magazine articlecalled attention to the annual re-estimate of the federalstudent loan program. Apparently, the feds expect to earn $22 billion less than expected onstudent loan payments, which was the result of an unexpected uptick in the number of studentloan borrowers taking advantage of the Obama administrations debt-relief programs. Whileefforts to assist struggling borrowers are needed, it is important to acknowledge that these debt-relief programs only address the symptoms of the college affordability crisis. They ignore theroot cause.

Many think that the primary cause of escalating tuition and fee increases is the result of rampantspending in higher education. And they are not wrong, at least if they are thinking about private,

four-year colleges and universities where annual increases typically exceedthe rate of inflation.However, out-of-control spending is not to blame atpublic, four-year colleges and universities.The real culprit there is declining state support for higher education, which has shifted costs onceborne by taxpayers onto the backs of students and families.

Not too long ago, attendance at a public institution was relatively affordable, primarily becausestate governments picked up much of the tab through direct funding provided to institutions. But,oh, how the times have changed. In 1988, net tuition or payments from students and families only accounted for nearly 24 percent of higher education revenue nationwide; today itaccounts for nearly 48 percent. As you can see from the chart below, net tuition contributesroughly 85 percent of total higher education revenue in states like New Hampshire and Vermont

and more than 60 percent in 13 other states.

Obtaining a postsecondary degree or credential has significant personal benefit, no questionabout it. But we cant forget that there are significant societal, or public, benefits as well.Society cant function without teachers, engineers, scientists, and doctors whose work, in mostinstances, enhances all of our lives. College-educated citizens are also more likely to be engagedcivically and less likely to rely on public assistance programs while contributing more moneyto the tax base.

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These social benefits demand a considerable public investment from the states. When states failto pay their fair share, the cost burden gets disproportionately shifted to students and families,who increasingly rely on loans to foot the bill. And when they are unable to repay these loans,the federal government has to bail out borrowers with taxpayer money. This means thattaxpayers in states that already invest heavily in higher education end up paying twice, as their

tax dollars could cross-subsidize borrowers in other states where college is less affordablebecause of declining state support.

We know that high college costs can have disproportionate effects on low-income students, assticker shockcan prevent themfrom even applying to some schools. Even with need-basedfinancial support, low-income students too often receive financial aid packages that either a)require them to payincomprehensible percentagesof their family income to attend college orb)fail to meet the full cost of attendanceeven when loans are considered. Ultimately, theserealities affect access and completion, influencing students decisions to enroll, persist, or seekother options.

As Congress likely gears up to reauthorize the Higher Education Act this year, we hope memberscan figure out a way to leverage the federal investment in higher education to beef up statesfunding for public colleges and universities. This is key to fixing the college affordability crisis.Several higher education policy organizations, including Ed Trust, have put forwardbold policysolutionsthat can helpmake college more affordable,particularly for low-income students andfamilies who are most likely to default. But will policymakers find the courage to act and yankout the root?

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9/24/2015 Oregon passes free community college bill as congressional Democrats introduce federal version

https://www .insidehighered.com/print/news/2015/07/09/oregon-passes-fr ee-community-college-bil l-congressional-democrats-introduce-federal?width=775&he

(https://www.insidehighered.com)

Oregon passes free community college bill as congressionalDemocrats introduce federal version

Submitted by Paul Fain on July 9, 2015 - 3:00am

President Obamas push for free community college has yet to be shunted aside by the debt-freecollege ideas his aspiring Democratic successors are talking up.

Oregon now is poised to follow Tennessee [1]as the second state with a plan on the books to providefree two-year college. And Democrats in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives introducedbills Wednesday that seek to make Obamas federal proposal [2]a reality. The proposed legislation [3]lacks any Republican support, however, so the bills are unlikely to go anywhere.

Yetthe Oregon Promise [4], which the Legislature passed last week [5]and which Governor Kate

Brown, a Democrat, is expected to sign, is an indication that the concept of free community collegehassome momentum.

Mark Hass, a Democratic state senator in Oregon, proposed the legislation [6]. Its a last-dollar plan,which means the state will spend $10 million a year to fill in the tuition gaps that state and federal aiddont cover.

However, all eligible students will receive a minimum grant of $1,000 -- even if their tuition fees arecovered by aid. And after the grant is applied to tuition, any leftover Oregon Promise dollars can beused for transportation, books and other expenses, said officials with thestate's Higher EducationCoordinating Commission. The grant could also free up federal aid that students could use for other

expenses. Click here for a fact sheet[7]

about the plan. (Note: This paragraph has been changedfrom an earlier version to incorporate new information from the commission.)

Oregon also will spend a new $7 million on related student success and completion programs, whichhigher education leaders in the state called a much-needed and welcome move. The new money ispart of a large funding boost [8]for higher education in Oregon.

In his written testimony [9]about the free community college bill, Hass argued that making communitycollege free is a bold, visionary idea. It would help the 70,000 people in the state who are betweenthe ages of 18 and 24 and have no job or higher education, he said, by better enabling them to enterthe workforce.

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9/24/2015 Oregon passes free community college bill as congressional Democrats introduce federal version

https://www .insidehighered.com/print/news/2015/07/09/oregon-passes-fr ee-community-college-bil l-congressional-democrats-introduce-federal?width=775&he

The legislation could also direct more federal aid to the state, said Hass, by increasing communitycollege enrollment and student applications for financial aid.

We like to study things in Oregon. And for the last two years, we have been studying how to makethis happen here, Hass said. Under the Obama administration, funding for Pell Grants hasdoubled. It would be smart for Oregon to take advantage of those dollars.

The White House has said it wants to encourage a broad shift in the way state and local lawmakers,business leaders and the general public view community college. Given increasing demand for

workers with at least a certificate or associate degree, the administrations goal is for public fundingto cover a K-14 education that is open to all.

The president has put a stake in the ground to say education after high school should be a given,just as K-12 education is a civil right, Martha Kanter, a professor of higher education at New YorkUniversity and former U.S. under secretary of education, said in an interview [10]with Inside HigherEda couple months ago. It's always been called a promise, but for too many people the promisewas not delivered.

The Obama plan, which is dubbed Americas College Promise, has its critics [11]. Some dont like thestrings that would come with the money. For example, the proposal includes unspecified federalperformance indicators and a requirement that colleges adopt evidence-based institutional reformsto improve student outcomes.

To conservatives, the free community college program looks like a federal takeover of the two-yearsector.

Bill Haslam, Tennessees Republican governor, who played a big role in creating the TennesseePromise [1], has argued that state programs are a better way to go than a federal free communitycollege plan. Backing that call has been Senator Lamar Alexander, the Tennessee Republican wholeads the Senates education committee.

But the Obama administration hasnt let up at the state and local level, either. Kanter has helped

lead [10]what observers say is an administration-backed full court press to build support for a broadrange of free community college plans.

Results are starting to emerge. The Community College of Philadelphia [12]and Harper College [13], atwo-year institution located in Illinois, recently announced tuition-free plans, joining one the CityColleges of Chicago [14]created last year, which the White House has touted.

Likewise, Minnesota [15]began a pilot program for free technical college, and Washington, D.C. [16], ismulling a free community college plan. But Oregon is the first state to follow Tennessee by jumpingin with a broad statewide program.

Its certainly a great opportunity for Oregon to help lead the way, said Ben Cannon, executive

director of the states Higher Education Coordinating Commission.

The big kahuna would be California and its 112 community colleges, which enroll 2.1 millionstudents. Filling in the gap between state and federal aid also wouldnt be a huge stretch inCalifornia, which is flush with tax revenue. And community college tuition in the state has long beenrelatively inexpensive.

Sources said conversations have occurred with California lawmakers and higher education officialsabout a free community college plan. But nothing has emerged yet.

New Features

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9/24/2015 Oregon passes free community college bill as congressional Democrats introduce federal version

https://www .insidehighered.com/print/news/2015/07/09/oregon-passes-fr ee-community-college-bil l-congressional-democrats-introduce-federal?width=775&he

Oregons legislation would cap spending on the free community college subsidy at $10 million ayear. In contrast, Tennessee created a $360 million endowment to pay for the $34 million estimatedannual cost of its plan, and to protect that stream of money from the vicissitudes of economicdownturns and new lawmakers.

The Oregon plan wont cover student demand, as lawmakers and community college officialsacknowledge. But the bill includes features to cope with the shortfall, which have won praise fromhigher education experts.

The minimum $1,000 grant for each qualifying student, which the states Office of Student Accessand Completion will administer, helps solve the problem of a free tuition plan -- and additional statefunding -- that could benefit wealthier students rather than the neediest ones, who are more likely toqualify for Pell Grants and other aid.

For a student who gets the full Pell, theyll also get some money left over for books and livingexpenses," said Andrea Henderson, executive director of the Oregon Community College

Association.

Sara Goldrick-Rab, a professor of educational policy studies and sociology at the University ofWisconsin at Madison, testified before the Oregon Legislature in February.

"This bill will benefit low- and moderate-income students in real and measurable ways -- it willincrease their rates of enrollment in college, boost their persistence and may also increase theirgraduation rates," she said in her prepared statement [17]. "Rigorous studies have shown thatreducing the cost of community college by even $1,000 a year results in substantial increasesacross the board."

As with the Tennessee Promise and Obamas proposal, Oregon's plan includes several eligibilityrequirements for students. They must be residents of the state for a year, hold a high school diplomaor its equivalent, and have earned a high-school grade point average of at least 2.5.

Recipients of the grant must enroll in degree, transfer or career academic tracks at an Oregon

community college within six months of graduating from high school. They cant have earned morethan 90 college credits, and must maintain a 2.5 GPA to remain eligible.

Students will be required to kick in a $50 per-term co-pay. The new state grants will cover the priceof full-time, full-year community college tuition, which is about $4,900, minus whatever state andfederal aid is received -- with the minimum grant being $1,000.

Henderson said community college leaders had grave concerns about early versions of the freecommunity college plan that began circulating in the statehouse two years ago. She said the firstideas to emerge were mandates for the state's already underfunded community colleges to cuttuition.

Since then both the proposal and the state funding situation have improved, with Oregonscommunity colleges receiving a 22 percent increase in their state contribution this biennium.Henderson said one key change in the bill is that the grant will be administered as part of thefinancial aid process rather than as a tuition discount.

The colleges arent on the hook for a waiver, she said.

Another big selling point for the bill is the accompanying $7 million Oregon ponied up to helprecipients get to graduation. That money could go toward student coaching and counseling, saidCannon, as well as to college readiness programs in K-12 schools. (The funding has yet to beallocated, and the commission must propose to the Legislature how to spend it.) The state also willspend a new $1.5 million on college advising.

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9/24/2015 Oregon passes free community college bill as congressional Democrats introduce federal version

https://www .insidehighered.com/print/news/2015/07/09/oregon-passes-fr ee-community-colle