Since the 2008 recession, public colleges and
universities have generally experienced decreased per-pupil state spending,
which has led to mass layoffs of faculty and staff members, and tuition hikes.
According to a report by the Center
on Budget and Policy Priorities, “funding for public two and four-year colleges is nearly
$10 billion below what it was just prior to the recession.”
Meanwhile, since
the 2007-08 school year, annual tuition at
four-year public colleges has risen
more than 60 percent in seven states; more than 40 percent in 14 states; and more than 20 percent in 39 states.
Lawrence
Officer, professor of economics for the University of Illinois at Chicago, said
public universities were historically intended to provide quality education at
low tuition rates compared with private universities.
“That was
the whole point: that you didn’t have to be rich,” Officer said. “You can’t
afford a private university; therefore, you go to a public university which
would be financed largely through tax dollars -- and that was the theory.”
However,
now there isn’t much difference between a public university’s tuition and a
private university’s tuition, Officer said, except for the elite private
universities that have a much higher tuition.
“The economy
changed and state budgets became tight -- Illinois, Michigan, many states with
the exception maybe of states like Texas and Alaska that have a lot of oil
money until recently,” Officer said. “So, our state budgets got tight and so the states could
not fund or would not fund public universities to the extent that they used
to.”
Moreover, Officer believes schools are not doing as much as they could or should, and the
budget crunch has led to larger class sizes and resulted in some
courses being taught by graduate students instead of faculty.
“When
there’s a budget crunch, you have to make some tough choices,” he said.
“So do you cut down on the number of courses you offer, or do you have people
with less experience teaching the courses?”
Officer went on to say that, although many people have had to work through college, working full-time
and going to school full-time puts students in a very difficult situation.
“Many kids
are working more than they should,” he said. “It breaks my heart when I speak
to students who don’t come to class regularly. And when I ask them why they
don’t, they say it’s because they have to work.”
The only
other alternative for many students is to rely more heavily on student loans.
Total
student debt in America is $1.26 trillion, representing the second largest consumer
debt after mortgages, USA Today
reported.
A state-by-state comparison showed that graduates in Utah have the least student debt -- an
average of $7,527 per student. Graduates in New Hampshire, on the other hand, have
an average of $25,740 in student debt upon graduation.
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