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Cost of college on lawmakers' minds
By Art Jesterajester@herald-leader.com
FRANKFORT — Tuition at Kentucky's public universities and community colleges has shot up an average of 12 percent a year over the last five years, which is about four times the rate of inflation and the growth of the state's median family income.
That may be putting the cost of a college education out of reach for ordinary Kentuckians, worried state legislators and postsecondary education officials said Monday.
“Something's got to happen,” said Richard A. Crofts, the interim president of the state Council on Postsecondary Education.
“It can't continue, and we're going to have to develop a plan,” he said
Crofts added that creating such a plan will be a high priority item during his interim period, which is expected to last at least to Dec. 31.
Crofts, a former higher education commissioner in Montana and Mississippi, said Kentucky must take action or it will be impossible to reach the state's goal of doubling the number of bachelor's degree holders to 800,000 by 2020.
That goal was established by the legislature's higher education reform act of 1997. The goal's premise, based on research, was that by reaching the 800,000 mark Kentucky would push its standard of living to the national average.
“There is a strong correlation between high per capita income and college degrees,” said Jim Applegate, the CPE's vice president for academic affairs.
CPE officials addressed the affordability issue before the postsecondary education subcommittee of the General Assembly's Interim Joint Committee on Education.
“In Kentucky, the trend is that college is less affordable,” said John Hayek, the CPE's interim vice president for finance. “It's less affordable than it was 10 years ago.”
Hayek said the “cost of college may be getting to a ‘tipping point'” — meaning that costs may be getting so high that they will prevent a significant number of students from attending.
The legislative subcommittee hopes to determine precisely what's causing the diminishing affordability of a college education.
Once that's accomplished, the subcommittee and the larger interim joint committee on education might recommend legislation for the 2009 General Assembly or call on the CPE to enact policies that would keep college costs within reach of ordinary Kentuckians, especially those of low and middle incomes.
As often happens, the causes of higher education's problems are many and complex.
For example, State Rep. Carl Rollins, D-Midway, said the universities need to find more ways to save money.
“I don't think anyone up here is going to write a blank check for our universities,” said Rollins, a marketing manager for the Kentucky Higher Education Assistance Authority, which administers state financial aid programs for college students.
Crofts said Kentucky's plan will have to take into account several factors:
■ An expectation that costs will go up.
■ A reasonable expectation of what Kentuckians should pay for college.
■ A reasonable expectation of how much students should borrow to help pay for college without being saddled with too much debt.
■ A reasonable expectation of what students should contribute to pay for their education, from summer earnings, campus jobs and the like.
“We expect students are going to contribute to their own education,” Crofts said.