Army tuition assistance, military tuition assistance, G.I. Bill, military friendly colleges - Army Times

College costs keep rising

The cost of attending college continues to climb: In-state tuition and fees at public four-year schools averaged $6,185 this year, up 6.6 percent from last year, says the College Board, which tracks more than 5,000 colleges and universities. The increase was slightly more than the previous year’s 5.7 percent bump.

At private schools, tuition and fees this year average $16,640, up 5.5 percent from last year. Increases the previous year averaged 6.3 percent.

Price increases have been smallest at public two-year institutions, where tuition and fees averaged $2,361, up 4.2 percent from last year, vs. 3.8 percent the year before.

Though this year’s overall increases were less dramatic than in some recent years, “I would have hoped to see more of a slowdown,” said Sandy Baum, who has authored the report for several years. “Clearly, finding some way to temper prices is necessary.”

For students who live on campus (40 percent do at public schools, 64 percent at private schools), room and board raised the cost for public four-year colleges to $13,589, or 5.9 percent higher than last year. At private four-year schools, total costs rose by the same percentage to $32,307.

Average vs. net price

The report points out that the average published price differs from net price — the cost after grants (aid students do not have to pay back) and tax credits. About two-thirds of full-time students receive aid.

While prices at private institutions are on average higher, public universities have had larger recent increases in tuition and fees. One factor is a decline in state and local appropriations, the report says. Baum said appropriations are recovering, and she expects to see some mitigation in prices soon.

David Ward, president of the American Council on Education, an advocacy group, said in a statement that increases in college tuition have been relatively stable for five years — running 2 to 3 percentage points above inflation. But he is still “concerned about the overall financial health of higher education,” including a “quiet cost-shifting” from state support to tuition.

Until that is addressed, “no amount of effort by our institutions to raise revenue and cut expenses will be able to preserve affordable tuition formulas,” he said.

Aid is down

Undergraduates received more than $97 billion in state, institutional and federal student aid last year, the most recent year for which data was available. That’s a 3.1 percent decrease from $134.8 billion two years ago. Along with the decline in overall student aid, funding for Pell Grants, the federal government’s main need-based aid program, declined for the second year in a row, by $141 million in 2006 dollars.

President Bush signed a student loan bill this year that boosts federal loans to more than $20 billion and increases next year’s federal Pell Grants to $4,800. This increase is not represented in the report, which is based on last year’s data, the most recent data available.

Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, responded to the report, saying in a statement that the “college cost crisis” is devastating families and the USA’s position in the global economy, and that Congress plans to develop new strategies to help rein in costs.

Estimated growth in student borrowing slowed last year; borrowing from private sources continued to increase, but at a slower rate, as federal PLUS (parent) loans became available to grad students.

The increase in private student loans is a cause for concern because of their high interest rates and minimal borrower protection, said Robert Shireman, executive director of the advocacy group Project on Student Debt. Colleges need to help students avoid risky private loans, he said in a statement.