Smaller increase — 05/12/08

May 09, 2008 05:57 pm

— The tuition increase for the state’s community and technical colleges, approved Friday by the Council on Postsecondary Education, is less than half of what the two-year commuter colleges requested. Michael McCall, president of the system that includes Ashland Community and Technical College, says that’s a bad thing, but students attending the schools — and their parents — likely will think its a good thing.
The community and technical colleges are facing the same sort of reductions in state funding that the regional universities and the University of Kentucky and University of Louisville are experiencing. State funding for the current fiscal year, which ends June 30, was slashed by 3 per cent in midyear, and higher education funding across the state will experience another 3 percent reduction in state money for the fiscal year beginning July 1.
To offset that loss in state funding, the universities and community and technical colleges are seeking more money from students and their parents. For the most part, the Council on Postsecondary Education gave the universities what they sought, approving tuition increases of between 6 percent and 10 percent for the fall semester.
However, the council rejected the 13 percent increase in tuition requested for the community and technical colleges, granting an increase of only 5.2 percent.
McCall predicted the council’s action likely will force the two-year colleges to cut services and maybe even reduce enrollment. Time will tell.
However, we suspect students and their parents are elated by the council’s decision. After enduring sharp annual hikes in tuition in recent years, they likely welcome a break in financing their college education.
The council’s decision likely will send the two-year schools scurrying for ways to reduce costs. That could lead to staff reductions that may mean fewer classes will be available for students. However, the challenge now is to make the cuts that will impact students the least.
We don’t fault the Council on Postsecondary Education for taking a stand against ever-rising increases in tuition. With each increase, college becomes more difficult for students from families of modest means to afford. In a state that dramatically needs to increase its number of college graduates, making college too expensive for even a few is counterproductive.