For Immediate Release
April 18, 2011
Contact: Martin Cothran
Phone: (859) 329-1919
LEXINGTON, KY—A state family advocacy group announced today it will seek a moratorium on tuition increases at the state's public universities in the 2012 Kentucky General Assembly. The group's announcement came in response to last week's tuition increase at the University of Louisville of almost three times the current rate of inflation, and follows several decades in which state universities have dramatically increased the cost of a college education.
"People used to talk about 'working your way through college’," said Martin Cothran, spokesman for the group. "Now they talk about working their way out of their college debt. The cost of a college education in Kentucky is outstripping the ability of families to pay for it. This has to stop."
Cothran pointed to a study The Family Foundation released last year showing that colleges and universities have been increasing tuitions at rates that have far outstripped median household incomes, and demonstrating the problem lies in the failure of Kentucky's higher education institutions to control costs. "The state's universities are refusing to run their institutions efficiently and they're passing the cost of that failure on to students, families, and taxpayers."
The failure to control the cost of a college education may be one the state's worst economic problems, said Cothran, since access to a college education is a significant factor in individual economic progress. "Kentucky cannot improve economically if the policies of its economic institutions are dragging it down. Public policymakers in our state cannot allow our educational institutions to stifle economic progress."
Cothran said a moratorium is necessary in order to begin bringing college costs back into alignment with the ability of Kentuckians to pay for it.
“Our institutions of higher education are no longer giving our students a leg up in their professional lives; instead, they're saddling them with debt. This has got to stop.”
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5 comments:
Cothran said a moratorium is necessary in order to begin bringing college costs back into alignment with the ability of Kentuckians to pay for it.
No doubt TFF has a well-researched and accurate estimate of "the ability of Kentuckians" to pay for college. I wonder if Martin can clue his readers in.
Art,
"Additional insights can be obtained by studying how affordability is measured. Let the index of financial burden be ‘B,’ let the total attendance price be ‘P,’ let federal grants per student be ‘F,’ let state/local grants per student be ‘S,’ let institutional grants be ‘I,’ and let median income be ‘M;’ then the index of financial burden is B=(P-F-S-I)/M. The numerator in this ratio is the net attendance price, the cost to students after all grants have been applied. As B increases, the financial burden imposed by college costs on median households increases; families must make greater sacrifices and students wind up with more debt after graduation. As B decreases, the financial burden declines.
The first thing to notice is that the financial burden does not depend exclusively on how much federal student support or state/local student support is available. Both F and S can rise briskly over time and the index of financial burden can still increase. If the attendance price (P) grows faster than public support (F, S, and I) and still faster than median income, the burden will rise. In other words, taxpayer’s can be very diligent in their support of higher education and affordability can still decline (the burden rises). This is what has been happening across the board in higher education for the past three decades."
--"Kentucky Higher Education Access," by Robert E Martin, Professor Emeritus, Centre College, November, 2009. Sponsored by The Family Foundation.
That tells us how affordability is measured. I am interested in the numbers - what value of the product B*M is affordable, what value is not affordable, and how is the line drawn?
Art,
So what are you contesting? You seem to have an idea of what constitutes affordability and what does not. We are reissuing the report, but I would be curious to know what standard it is on the basis of which you are going to judge the findings of our report--and where you get your from.
I am asking what TFF considers to be affordable as far as a college education is concerned. Why are you so reluctant to put a tangible dollar amount behind your complaints, Martin?
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