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We've heard about the College Board study that showed tuitions going up almost 8% on average, as well as the mid-year tuition hikes that surprised many families.

Now an article in the L.A. Times, Financial Ills Plague Public Colleges, documents even more money-related issues. A few of the topics include faculty and athletics cuts in Massachusetts, a possible 16% jump in tuition in Washington, and simultaneous hiring freeze and admissions freeze in Wisconsin. The latter is particularly interesting, since it could mean that kids planning on taking courses at their high school for college credit might not be allowed to enroll for dual-credit because of the admissions freeze.

No doubt many of these problems will go away if the economy recovers soon. Nevertheless, families considering a public college should perform some due diligence to see what the effects of the money crunch might be on the programs at that school.

By Shennie (Shennie) on Thursday, March 21, 2002 - 08:25 pm: Edit

Please understand that the suspension of admissions at UW system schools is essentially a political play by the Regents in response to major cuts in the university budget by the legislature. (And a pretty savvy one, I might add.) Once the legislature backs down a bit, which is already starting to happen, I think the Regents will lift the suspension. I don't think that high school student enrollment will be much affected since those students are not admitted until August and only on a space available basis. The sad part is the high school seniors who are caught in the middle. I think the final upshot will be that many seniors will apply much early to UW schools rather than waiting until spring.

By Roger (Roger) on Friday, March 22, 2002 - 05:22 pm: Edit

The old "since you didn't approve the bond issue, we'll have to cut football" approach, eh, Shennie? Unfortunately, sometimes this kind of political "chicken" playing can have real consequences for students caught in the middle. I think the HS dual enrollment thing is a good example of playing politics without the benefit of common sense - clearly, these students use virtually no resources in the college system, and probably have a positive effect on net revenue. The article implies, though, that they could get caught by the admissions freeze.

By Dadster on Sunday, March 24, 2002 - 06:20 pm: Edit

Here's a Chicago Tribune article, Colleges blame states for huge tuition hikes, that further underscores the same problem. Nice quote in it:

"Why is there no effective downward pressure on rapidly increasing college costs?" Keith Sanders, who is retiring as the president of the Illinois Board of Higher Education, asked a group of college educators meeting for a College Board hearing in Chicago this month. "We're avoiding the prime question--why are college costs going up?"

By Shennie (Shennie) on Sunday, March 24, 2002 - 07:02 pm: Edit

Roger - I agree that the kids are the ones who ultimately get squeezed. In the UW situation, the state has a $1 billion deficit. The university was ok with the original budget that was agreed on that required cuts to the university. Then all of a sudden, the legislature wanted to increase the cuts to the university by a huge amount. The Regents reacted by freezing admissions, knowing that the citizens would be unhappy. The Regents got an agreement from the democrats in the legislature to try and go back to the original budget and UW has reopened admissions. (What is really interesting from a political stand point is that the Regents are all Republicans appointed by a Republican governor.) I think that there were still about 1000 students system wide who were still on the waiting list. Don't know how many of those will ultimately get in, but I don't anticipate that dual enrollment kids will be affected by this.