The Virginian-Pilot
©
RICHMOND
Five straight years of state budget cuts "have put the affordability and accessibility of Virginia's nationally acclaimed system of public higher education at risk," a report warned Monday.
As state support continues to shrink, more and more of the burden of paying for a college education falls on students and their parents.
The average annual cost for an in-state undergraduate student at a four-year state university, including room and board, will be $16,833 next year, a 7.5 percent increase over last year. That represents 41.6 percent of per capita disposable income, the highest level in history, according to the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia.
The statistics are from an annual compilation of tuition and fees produced by the council, an umbrella organization that oversees Virginia universities.
The trend of declining state support amounts to a "de facto privatization" of Virginia's public system of higher education, the council said.
After adjusting for inflation, state support for higher education has fallen by nearly half over the past decade and is now lower than in any of Virginia's neighboring states. Tuition and fees, meanwhile, have nearly doubled.
Among Virginia's 15 four-year state institutions, the total annual cost for in-state undergraduates next year will range from a low of $13,849 at Norfolk State University to a high of $20,872 at the College of William and Mary.
Had it not been for an infusion of $198 million in federal stimulus money, the tuition hikes would have been much steeper, the council said. The federal money will run out in 2012, raising the specter of an even bigger sticker shock for students and parents.
The college funding crunch is one of the key topics on the agenda of a higher-education study commission appointed by Gov. Bob McDonnell in May. It is scheduled to submit recommendations for reform to the governor by Nov. 30.
State Sen. Edward Houck of Spotsylvania County, a retired educator and a member of the governor's panel, said the state's support for its universities was already meager but took a body blow from recent budget cuts driven by the national recession.
"The state funding commitment to higher education historically has never been what I, for one, think it should be, and I think that's shared by many others," Houck said. "But now we've only made it worse."
Houck, a Democrat, said that if Virginia's state universities are going to stay nationally ranked, "I think more funding is absolutely essential."
That sentiment, however, runs up against the stance taken by McDonnell, a Republican, and the Republican-controlled House of Delegates, who have staunchly opposed any state tax increases.
Del. Scott Lingamfelter, a Republican from Prince William County who also serves on the governor's panel, said the focus should be on cost containment, not revenue enhancement.
"Increasing taxes on the average family in Virginia at the same time you increase tuition is not a pretty picture," he said.
Old Dominion University President John Broderick, another member of the panel, said one problem is the way the state parcels out the money.
The higher education council calculates how much the state contributes toward an institution's "base adequacy" - a measure of the support needed for a university's basic operations. By that measure, ODU is dead last at 81 percent, even though it has one of the state's highest concentrations of in-state students. About 87 percent of the school's 25,000 students are Virginians.
"If the funding formula doesn't reward me for serving Virginians, that starts to be problematic," Broderick said.
The cost of an ODU education is still comparatively modest by statewide standards. The Norfolk school's 5.3 percent increase in tuition and mandatory fees next year will be the smallest in the state. By contrast, Virginia Commonwealth University, the state's other big urban school, went up 23.9 percent.
Including room and board, the total average bill for an in-state undergraduate at ODU next year will be $15,610. At VCU, it will be $17,343.
Virginia's biggest higher-education bargain continues to be its system of 23 two-year community colleges. Average tuition and mandatory fees at a community college next year will be $3,285, less than half the $8,830 average at four-year institutions.
Bill Sizemore, (757) 446-2276, bill.sizemore@pilotonline.com
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Rent your Books
At least at TCC and TNCC, rental programs with a choice to own have arrived. Good news for students paying double the price for twice the fluff. Does a 2-inch thick book on basic accounting make you twice as smart?
There were too many forced electives 20 years ago. A couple of electives provide a great opportunity for changing majors, if that's really a possible goal. Russian Science Fiction, at least where I went, was taught as if you were a literature major. A dedicated engineer had no business being there.
Today there should be no room for these extras. Without scholarship, it makes little sense to attend private schools for four years, and we're to the point now where many are asking, why bother with college at all.
Renting a great idea, not allowed for Nursing
Renting books is a great idea, and allowed for most programs except nursing at ODU (which has profoundly expensive books).
As far as whether college is necessary--well as it currently functions--sure seems like a good question.
Undergraduates rack up loads of debt (for programs like elementary education) and take a smorgasboard of politically correct courses that barely amount to a well rounded liberal arts education (Women's Studies? African American Studies?) and there are few jobs when they graduate. The global labor market rewards EDUCATION, not mere credentials such as a bachelors degree in "what ever".
Check out this web site where well educated Indians provide academic assistance in writing and communications skills--IN ENGLISH!
chillibreeze.com/epublishing/publish-your-book.asp
Maybe we don't need the college degrees that are being sold to us at huge price tags, but we desperately need EDUCATION, literacy and mathematics competence! For a great (easy to read) source that ties college major to staring salaries and lifetime earnings... College Majors Handbook, with real Career Paths and Payoffs, By Fogg, Harrington and Harrington.
College Majors Handbook
Insight from this Handbook, was first that the strong basic skills (in math and reading) that should be learned in k-8, substantially reduces the impact of low family income on the ability of students to earn a college degree.
Having basic skills plays a more important role than money does in gaining access to a college degree.
The other gem of insight, (not including hugely interesting statistics on income by major) is the finding that courses that fail to increase educational and employment options either through emphasis on basic skills or through vocational training are simply a bad investment and should be avoided.
So, back to my usual rant, school choice at the elementary and high school level would give parents control over whether to send their kids to a school that focuses on basic skills and achievement (test scores) or "edutainment" and politically correct indoctrination (teaching the Constitution by showing movies of police stopping teenagers for driving/pot violations).
I saw the TCC nursing "math diagnostic test" and can say with confidence that it consisted of over 50 "word problems" that resemble 4th through 6th grade math, with an emphasis on ratio and
Necessary
The reality is that massive budget cuts were needed. Higher education is a business and if they lose money they will find a way to make up those the funds lost. This is the trickle down effect that we see in all aspects of business.
Yes, Braves0228, it is a business
Higher education is a business, non-profit status notwithstanding. Colleges are being expanded (read: spending) by the obscene indebtedness of eighteen year olds across the nation. This is Wrong Thinking. Shifting cost this way is government accounting sleight-of-hand no different than Wall Street and the stakes are high- this scheme will collapse and additional unintended consequences will follow. The politicians will moan "we didn't connect the dots.." Sound familiar? Count on it.
Japanese parents pay large % of education costs-kids graduate!
educationinjapan.wordpress.com/parenting-potpourri/the-cost-of-educating-a-child-in-japan
search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20080910a5.html
Japan's relatively high rate of spending on private education also contributes to the better cost performance of public education.
In 2005, the public share of spending on education was 68.6 percent, well below the OECD average of 85.5 percent, according to the 2008 edition of the annual report Education at a Glance.
However, Japan's private expenditures on postsecondary education is remarkably high at 66.3 percent, while the OECD average is 26.9 percent, according to the survey.
This means Japanese university students benefit less from the government compared to their counterparts in European countries, where tuition is subsidized.
The U.S. invested almost twice as much as Japan in postsecondary institutions in both public and private expenditures in 2005 but was ranked the second highest in the proportion of students who enter a postsecondary program but leave without a degree.
More School Choice-higher achievement
If the government just gave a voucher for the amount of aid it gives to schools--all schools, including K-12, achievement would rise at all levels. And, like in Japan, parents who valued education more than trips to Disneyland would pay additional money for supplementary education of various kinds, from math tutoring to music lessons and all other intellectually stimulating activities. We must put our money (private and public) into education not entertainment.
Check out international achievement scores. The US spends government (taxpayer) spends more on education than most higher achieving countries.
4brevard.com/choice/international-test-scores.htm
Social work in the schools is expensive!
The higher costs of education are consistent with the frustration expressed by many teachers who would like to be compensated for the “additional” work they believe is part of their job—the “social work”.
4brevard.com/choice/international-test-scores.htm
One would think that with our vastly superior resources and the level of education spending which far exceeds these competitors we would outperform nearly everyone - not so. Dr. Schmidt, who oversees the research effort into the TIMSS results, says the actual cause for the failures appears to be weak math and science curricula in U.S. middle schools.
A more insightful explanation was once proffered by Jean McLaughlin, president of Barry University who said "The public schools lack focus; instead of concentrating on education, they dabble in social re-engineering". That assessment was confirmed by the superintendent of the country's fourth largest school district in Miami-Dade, Florida who said "Half our job is education, and the other half is social work".
Cost of books exceeds tuition
I priced books for my college students over the past 5 years and the cost of books exceeded the cost of in-state tuition at the junior college level; At ODU, the cost of books ranged from 2 to 3 credit hours of instate tuition. Why must students be expected to purchase new editions of books when the editions change almost every year? And, we agreed to the bargain that if we invested multi-millions in internet and computer systems, the "paper less" text book would prevail and we would save money on text books. The reality is, both the cost of text books and related materials (CD ROMs and 'access codes") have increased sharply, while the cost of technology at every school level--K-university has galloped ahead.
Actually, it is my
Actually, it is my understanding that the online schools use paperless copies of books. They use PDF files, and they are totally encumbered in digital rights management. They charge just as much as the real physical book, but instead you just get the file. So basically, there is more profit. And they modify the electronic copies yearly to make sure they can't be reused.
Business is about making profit. Colleges are businesses.