State going wrong way with affordable tuition
If Tennessee higher education officials are concerned about the rising cost of college tuition, they’re doing a poor job of showing it. For the fifth year in a row, the cost of taking college courses at the state’s public institutions will increase.
This might not be cause for alarm if it wasn’t for the magnitude of the tuition hikes. If the Tennessee Board of Regents approves an average 11 percent increase today, tuition will have risen 54 percent over the past five years.
For education officials charged with molding Tennessee’s bright, young minds, constantly raising college tuition is not smart. It’s getting to the point where it’s dangerously close to being counterproductive.
The predicament higher education faces is understandable. State budgets – including Tennessee’s – are stretched thin. Citizens expect governments to operate more smoothly, more efficiently – not raise taxes.
Tennessee is not throwing new money at its colleges and universities. Funding has remained stagnant in recent years, and that mood could very well continue.
That said, it’s also painfully apparent state-run institutions must do a better job of budgeting and managing their funds. A 54 percent increase in five years is inexplicable.
Yes, costs do rise. There are building projects and the need for new technology. Professors and administrators should be given pay raises. But a 54 percent leap in expenses far exceeds any reasonable five-year outlook.
The burden of paying for higher education is shifting. The state is shunning its responsibility and shifting it to the students.
For many Tennesseans, this won’t present a problem. Some have planned on attending college since their days in elementary school. For them, higher education is in their future, no matter the extra cost.
But for thousands and thousands of other state residents, attending college is not the focal point of their life after high school. In fact, only 21 percent of Tennesseans over 25 have a college degree, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That ranks Tennessee 38th in the nation.
This wouldn’t be such a glaring statistic if level of education didn’t have a direct link to annual income. It’s no coincidence states like West Virginia and Mississippi have a sizable percentage of their populations living in poverty. They are also two states that traditionally rank the lowest when it comes to the percentage of their residents with college degrees.
The U.S. Department of Education provides even more telling statistics. For households with at least a bachelor’s degree, the median annual income is $59,048. When a master’s degree is present, the median household income jumps to $68,115.
But those numbers plummet when higher education is removed from the equation. For households with only high school graduates, the median annual income is $33,779. When residents don’t complete high school, the median income drops to $19,851 annually.
With that in mind, it’s vital for Tennessee to continue to offers its residents an affordable college education, whether it be at a two-year college, a technology center, or a university. An education, statistics prove, is crucial to financial prosperity.
The state, however, doesn’t appear committed to corralling its runaway tuition costs. Five straight years of significant increases only discourages Tennesseans from attending college.