In today’s news the University of Kansas boasts fundraising efforts reached its goal of $1.2 billion. The monies will go primarily to fund scholarships for incoming students.
Increasingly, colleges are having to tap private donors in order to not only keep their doors open but also to keep higher education affordable to a growing majority of students.
Over the last 10 years, the cost to attend Allen Community College has increased an average 4.4 percent. The biggest increase in tuition, 10.5 percent, occurred in 2009 after the 2008 recession took hold.
Tuition alone at ACC is $2,250 for a typical 9-month year. Only Coffeyville Community College’s tuition is lower, at $1,950 a year.
When room and board are figured in, ACC tops the list in affordability, rounding out at $6,800 a year, followed by CCC’s $7,320 a year.
These figures do not include scholarships, of which most ACC students carry, thanks in large part to the school’s successful endowment program.
Of the state’s 25 four-year colleges, the best bargain money-wise is Fort Hays State University, where tuition is slightly below $5,000 a year. Add room and board, though, and students can expect to spend about $12,000.
Pittsburg State University comes in a close second at $13,000 a year. At PSU, room and board closely matches the rate of tuition, $6,230 a year.
K-State and KU come in at $17,000 and $18,000 respectively for the total packages.
Across the country, the average tuition in public four-year colleges is $9,139. With room and board figured in, the cost doubles.
The numbers illustrate two things:
1) Attending a community college in preparation of university saves boatloads of money; and,
2) Living expenses are just as important as tuition when considering the cost of secondary education.
Average student debt was $29,400 for graduates of four-year colleges in 2013, up more than 10 percent from the previous year. In Kansas, 59 percent of students graduate owing loans for their education.
Financial aid is primarily for tuition and fees only.
In reality, most students must view college as a time they forego an income in trust that all those hours spent studying and going to classes will be rewarded with a future career that will more than pay back the investment. Educators refer to this as the “opportunity cost” — the expense of going to college for the opportunity of greater gains for both the students and society at large.
If tuition rates continue to escalate it’s an opportunity more and more students will be denied and for which as a country we will be the lesser.
— Susan Lynn
Students being priced out of higher education
