Free Republic

Duke to Parents: Please Save by: Bethany Stotts, September 18, 2008 College tuitions have risen dramatically over the last two decades, with the average private four-year college costing parents $14,755 in 1991. Today that same four-year private college would cost $23,712 (2007 dollars), according to statistics released by the College Board. As Accuracy in Academia has documented, some scholars attribute the rising costs to ever-available federal financial aid, and some to an unnecessary emphasis on higher education. But Duke University’s former financial aid director, Jim Belvin, asserts that federal financial aid has “many positives,” including a “streamlining” effect and raising...

A state appeals court has reinstated a lawsuit challenging a policy that allows some illegal immigrants to pay lower in-state tuition to attend California's public colleges and universities. The 3rd District Court of Appeal in Sacramento said Monday that a lower court erred in dismissing the suit brought by 42 students who paid far more to attend college because they were out-of-state residents. At issue is a 2002 law that made any California high school graduate who attended at least three years of high school in the state eligible for in-state fee breaks, regardless of immigration status.

Reality Check on College by: Lance Nation, September 15, 2008 Does everyone need a college education? According to Charles Murray, “No, too many people are going to college. A Bachelor of Arts in and of itself tells you nothing. We have exalted a meaningless document.” Murray, a W. H. Brady Scholar at American Enterprise Institute (AEI), does not argue that people should not be educated. “Everyone deserves a liberal education. However, they do not need to attend a four-year college or university to obtain it,” he said recently at AEI. Murray discussed his new book. Real Education: Four Simple Truths...

Tuition Economics Bethany Stotts, September 15, 2008 A recent speech by the Secretary-General of the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), which studies trends within its thirty member-countries, brought home the fact that while tuition costs are rising in America, other developed countries face a similar higher-education financial crunch. Angel Gurría said that “the demand for education in OECD countries has been growing at an accelerating pace, and this rising tide is creating budgetary pressures to increase the offer of education without compromising quality, but tertiary education is not managing to meet this growing demand in many countries and...

Warning: Tuition Hike Ahead by: Jeff Waldmann, August 13, 2008 As Congress and the President continue to squabble over consolidating the federal budget, they pass bills that simultaneously undercut their efforts and expand government, says Brian M. Riedl, a Heritage Foundation fellow. Riedl gives a glaring example of one such bill that counteracts any comparatively minor budget cuts that have been made. He writes, “virtually unnoticed, the House of Representatives voted 354 to 58 on February 7 to add $169 billion in new higher-education spending and create at least 50 new federal programs. In other words, one step forward, ten...

Deval Patrick, already arguably the worst governor in the United States, has announced that he intends to give illegal immigrants free tuition to Massachusetts state colleges. "It's a simple matter of justice," he is quoted as telling reporters. As the station notes, out of state US citizens are required to pay a higher-than- instate rate to attend the same schools.

The Arkansas Department of Higher Education has begun checking students’ Social Security numbers and alerting colleges and universities if they appear invalid. Jim Purcell, the department director, said Thursday that the goal is to ensure that illegal aliens aren’t allowed to pay instate tuition rates when state officials think they’re ineligible under federal law. The investigation into the Social Security numbers began last week after Purcell alerted institutions, at the direction of Gov. Mike Beebe, that they need to ask students for evidence of legal residency before allowing them to pay the cheaper in-state rates. Purcell said the first check...

American Degree Mills Exposed by: Deborah Lambert, May 27, 2008 If someone in your family is heading off to college shortly, here’s something you might want to think about. A new study by the non-profit Delta Cost Project found that although the cost of college tuition outpaces inflation by a country mile, it doesn’t necessarily translate into better results, according to USA Today. For example, this year “the sticker price increases ranged from 4.2% at community colleges to 6.6% at public four-year institutions.” Since a college degree is still the must-have “ticket” for every American student, steady tuition increases are...

Governor Deval Patrick has decided against taking action to allow illegal immigrants to pay resident tuition and fees at state colleges and universities this fall, an administration official said yesterday, crushing advocates who were counting on the governor to deliver on a pledge to support the students. Earlier this year, Patrick said he was considering ways to offer illegal immigrants in-state rates, such as issuing a regulation, adding that it would be "the right thing to do." The governor declined to comment yesterday, but an administration source who spoke on condition of anonymity said Patrick decided that there were "significant...

Episcopal Seminaries Struggle With Costs Long-Held Training Model Faces an Uncertain Future By G. Jeffrey MacDonald Religion News Service Saturday, May 17, 2008; B09 In the cloistered world of Episcopal seminaries, time sometimes seems to stand still as clergy-in-training gather in stone chapels to pray in ways familiar to their forebears centuries earlier. But the semblance of timelessness can be deceiving. Some of the 11 seminaries affiliated with the Episcopal Church are slashing core programs, while others report rapid growth in enrollment. Still others are reexamining conventional wisdom about what it takes -- and how much it costs -- to...

WASHINGTON, April 21, 2008 – A piece of legislation aimed at easing transitions for military children switching schools adheres to an armed forces adage: Recruit the servicemember, but retain the family, a Pentagon official said today. Developed by the Council of State Governments, education experts and the Defense Department, the Compact on Education Transition for Military Children addresses common problems that affect military students as a result of frequent moves and deployments. “The interstate compact is a major new tool and opportunity for the nation really to show its appreciation to military families,” Leslye A. Arsht, deputy undersecretary of...

Colleges and universities are the richest institutions in the history of our nation --136 U.S.c olleges and universities have endowments larger than $500 million, 74 of which top $1 billion-- yet tuition continues to skyrocket while tax-free school endowments grow ever fatter. Lawmakers now question whether school endowments should remain unregulated and exempt from taxes, and are considering requiring schools to spend a percentage of their value each year, as private foundations must. Several schools have announced plans to dip into their endowments to defray students’ tuition expenses, but are they doing as much as they should in the area...

One oil company's offer to pay tuition for all graduating seniors brings hope and economic development to El Dorado. When officials announced the El Dorado Promise to an assembly of this Arkansas city's best and brightest high school students, there was a moment of stunned silence. A local oil company had just committed to paying college tuition and fees for all graduating seniors, regardless of their family income or their grades. Then the students – known as "Arkansas Scholars" because they carry intense course loads – cheered and returned to class. Art teacher Patrick Johnson will never forget what happened...

State lawmakers are considering a bill that would grant free college tuition for some juvenile offenders. Supporters say it's a way to encourage troubled youth to get their lives back on track. John Dixon, Deputy Secretary for the MD Department of Juvenile Services says, "The kids the department serves face a lot of obstacles and challenges when they return to the community. This bill will allow kids who are interested in attending public institution to go there tuition free."

Princeton University, with a $15.8 billion endowment, larger than the gross domestic product of Bolivia, is among an elite list of super-wealthy schools under pressure to justify how they spend their enormous wealth. Last year, a record 76 colleges and universities had endowments greater than $1 billion, making them targets for criticism in an era of soaring tuition and ballooning student loan debt. Congress wants the schools to spend more money on lowering tuitions for poor and middle-class students and is looking into the tax-exempt status of some donations.

Earlier this month, Stanford University announced that it will no longer charge tuition to students whose families make less than $100,000 a year. The move is part of a series of steps Stanford and its peer institutions have taken in the last decade to create more diverse classes. Some schools have replaced loans with grants for low-income students, eliminated home equity from calculations of expected family contributions, and nixed early decision programs, which disadvantage low-income students. While these steps are welcome, they aren’t significant enough to make these universities truly diverse. If schools are serious about providing a culturally rich...

My friend and former Spellings Commission colleague Charles Miller and I compete with one another over who can say the most times that the American system of financing student higher education is dysfunctional. We often talk about it in terms of its excessive complexity, the contradictions between various loan programs, the fact that the loan system gives schools carte blanche to raise prices, etc., etc. All true, all damning. But that is not the half of it. Let me repeat an example I used a few months ago, but illustrate it even more vividly. Let us take two kids who...

The heated debate over whether to allow undocumented immigrants to attend public colleges and universities at the same tuition rate other Connecticut residents pay could soon reignite at the state legislature. Under a bill introduced by state Rep. Felipe Reinoso, D- Bridgeport, Connecticut students living in the country illegally would pay in-state tuition rates at all state public colleges and universities, rather than the pricier out-of-state rates they must pay now. A similar bill was passed by the state legislature along partisan lines last year after a hard-fought debate, but Gov M. Jodi Rell vetoed the measure. Another bill, introduced...

Akron -- Mayor Don Plusquellic wants to sell the city's sewer system and use the money to send residents to the University of Akron for free. Plusquellic said Thursday that his plan is to create a scholarship fund by selling the sewer system, which the city values at $100 million to $400 million. That would give the city enough money to cover tuition and fees for the university or a trade school in the city. "This would be the kind of transformation that can reshape Akron for the rest of this century," Plusquellic said in his State of the City...

PC WC by: Deborah Lambert, January 29, 2008 If you think the level of academic conferences can’t sink any lower, read on. Last fall, New York University offered a day-long seminar titled “Sex, Gender and the Public Toilet: Outing the Water Closet.” Cultural commentator/author Roger Kimball reported that it took four departments to tackle this weighty topic: the Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality, the Department of Media, Culture and Communication, the Center for Religion and Media, and the Council on Media and Culture. Kimball noted that the gathering “brought together pioneering scholars of sex and gender with...

ABBEVILLE, South Carolina (CNN) -– Fred Thompson continued his attacks on all three of his main Republican rivals in South Carolina Wednesday. The former Tennessee senator, running behind John McCain, Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney in recent surveys in the state, has staked his candidacy on a strong showing in the GOP primary there this Saturday. Asked by a voter Wednesday how his record on "conservative Christian values" stacked up against those of Huckabee and John McCain, he immediately criticized the former Arkansas governor. "Just to cut through the baloney, it was me and not him who received the National...

Speaking to reporters after his Saturday rally at the Amway Grand, Huckabee said he is concerned that middle class families are going to be shut out of college because of staggering tuition bills. "The upper classes don't have to worry about it, and the people at the bottom have all kinds of financial aid," he said. "But the real challenge is to make higher education available to the people in the middle. And it's not just the tuition. The textbooks alone cost so much money." Huckabee said he favors helping students earn money for college through national service. "It used...

Harvard University got some nice press this week by announcing it will reduce tuition for middle-class families. ...families making up to $180,000 will pay no more than 10% of their annual income to finance the $45,600 that a year costs. ...While private foundations have been required for decades to shell out 5% of their total assets annually, universities decide for themselves and average close to 4%. The difference may seem small, but the money at stake is very large. Harvard's endowment is $35 billion, and growing... ..."it may not be the best thing for Congress to dictate the formulas by...

Harvard University announced on Monday that it would significantly increase the financial aid it offered to middle-class and upper-middle-class students, seeking to allay concerns that elite colleges are becoming too expensive for even relatively well-off families. The move, to go into effect in the next school year, appears to make Harvard’s aid to students with household incomes from $120,000 to $180,000 the most generous of any of the country’s prestigious private universities. Harvard will generally charge such students 10 percent of their family household income per year, substantially subsidizing the annual cost of more than $45,600. Officials said the policy...

Huckabee announces his desire to give scholarships to illegal aliens in his January 11, 2005 State of the State address. Huckabee doesn't say "illegal aliens". He uses the word "status". But a newspaper account makes clear his intentions, "Illegal aliens would be eligible for state taxpayer-funded college scholarships and in-state college tuition rates under a bill that was endorsed by a committee of the Arkansas House of Representatives on Tuesday. House Bill 1525 by Rep. Joyce Elliott, D-Little Rock, is part of Gov. Mike Huckabee’s legislative package. It easily won favor in the House Education Committee, of which Elliott is...

Carol Platt Liebau didn't care for the former Arkansas governor's debate performance. The invitation to appear on my show for as long an interview as the governor would like will be extended again, as the Huck Duck goes into week five. These exchanges from yesterday's "The Week" may explain why the governor has been avoiding conservative audiences: Huckabee Supports In-State Tuition Breaks For Illegals www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tKnV3_pbVI HUCKABEE: "But I'll tell you what I do believe, that you don't punish a child because a parent committed a crime or committed a sin. You just don't do that." STEPHANOPOULOS: And that's why you...

New Iowa Leader Criticized by for Indecision on Federal Student Aid. Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor who backed in-state tuition for the children of illegal immigrants, hedged Sunday on whether illegal immigrants who have gone to school in the United States should become eligible for federal student aid such as Pell grants and subsidized federal student loans. "I'm not sure that I would support that," Huckabee told ABC News, "it was a different program in Arkansas." Huckabee's failure to take a clear position on federal student aid while appearing on ABC News' "This Week with George...

California is the only state in the country that doesn't offer its Guard tuition assistance. That needs to change. THE CALIFORNIA National Guard claims to be the busiest in the country, which is easy to believe, given the state's size and vulnerability to disasters. At the same time, it's the smallest force relative to the population it protects — only 20,000 soldiers, or one for every 1,900 Californians. And that number is shrinking because of recruitment and retention troubles. Against this backdrop, you'd think that state officials would be scrambling to bring the Guard back to full strength. Instead, a...

Average tuition and fees at four-year public colleges rose 6.6 percent this year, again outstripping increases in financial aid and pushing students into more borrowing. Community colleges once again did the best job keeping the lid on prices. In-state students at four-year public schools are paying $6,185 this year, up $381 from last year, according to the nonprofit College Board's annual survey of college costs, released Monday. At four-year private colleges, tuition and fees rose 6.3 percent to $23,712. The published price is not the real price for many students. On average, accounting for grants and tax breaks, full-time students...

A controversial bill on the governor's desk would give illegal immigrant college students in California new benefits, including access to state grants and fee waivers. Immigrant rights groups have urged Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to sign Senate Bill 1, also known as the California Dream Act, saying it would give those students hope for a better future. But the governor rejected a similar bill last year and opponents say the measure would stretch the state's already tight resources. "I guess California hasn't figured out what to do with its revenue surpluses," said Ira Mehlman, referring to the state's ongoing budget shortfall....

Does it pay to go to college? If you check www.collegeboard.com, you'll find a reassuring study showing that education really does pay. Without considering the intangibles, the study shows that each additional level of education draws a higher lifetime income. While the median high-school graduate age 25 and older earns about $26,000, the median college graduate age 25 and older earns about $42,000. That's annual income premium of about $16,000, or around 60 percent. Not bad, particularly when you consider that the difference also allows you to escape doing heavy lifting. Yes, the college grad will spend years paying off...

That headline reads right, sad to say. A new bill that has already passed both houses of Congress and is headed for Bush's desk forgives the student loans of Federal employees of 10 years service. H.R.2669 gives already undeserving public employees yet another wonderful benefit that is denied to the average, working American. Thanks to the brilliant idea of a Democrat from California who thought it would be a good idea to excuse the school loans of Federal employees, we can now plan on our bloated, useless government getting even larger with this bill that is sure to act as...

Economics: President Bush has signed a student loan bill that's being hailed as much-needed assistance for current and prospective college students. It looks like they caught a break — but only if they don't look too close. The College Cost Reduction and Access Act expands financial aid by $20 billion, including federal grant increases. It eventually will cut the 6.8% interest rate on federally subsidized loans to 3.4% by July 1, 2011; set annual loan payments at 15% of what Washington considers the discretionary income of students who go into low-paying jobs; and forgive the debts of those workers who...

Should you even bother? For many high-school seniors, this week isn't just the beginning of the academic year. It's also the start of the college-application season, and that means filling out financial-aid forms. But for many families with hefty incomes or sizable wealth, applying for aid will be a wasted effort. Here's a look at who likely won't qualify. Facing rejection You can get a handle on your aid eligibility by heading to www.collegeboard.com and playing with the College Board's Expected Family Contribution, or EFC, calculator. The key concept: If your EFC is below a college's total annual cost, you...

When Emily McLain decided to enroll at the University of Oregon, a significant part of the appeal was low tuition. She had not counted on all the fees that unexpectedly appeared on her bill. “I had my dad calling me asking, ‘What’s this for?’ ” said Ms. McLain, 22, a political science and international studies major now entering her last year at the university. This year, the university is charging a $51 “energy surcharge” for rising electricity costs. A $270 “technology fee” for computer service. There is the $371.25 fee for campus health center, $135 fee to maintain buildings and...

...Only about 28 percent of jobs in this country require a four-year college degree. That percentage isn't projected to increase much in the future. Of the top 10 fastest-growing jobs over the next decade, only one requires more than a BA -- ironically, the position of college instructor. (The Occupational Outlook Handbook is an invaluable resource for this and other job information.) It's true that many of the fastest-growing jobs are low-wage and in the service industry. But the nation also needs nurses and physical therapists; network systems and database administrators; veterinary and dental technicians; carpenters and plumbers; and retail...

EAST LANSING, Mich. - Michigan State University senior Katie Wright worries college tuition is rising so fast that some working-class families, including her own, may soon find higher education unaffordable. Michigan is one of a handful of states where tuition at some public universities will increase by nearly 10 percent or more headed into the fall semester. Four-year public schools in Illinois, Colorado and Oklahoma also plan tuition increases that could at least triple the general inflation rate. The typical bill for a full-time in-state undergraduate at Michigan State will climb by roughly $800 this academic year under the current...

LET'S SAY YOU'RE A student at Saginaw Valley State University. Times are tough, and with your part-time job you can barely pay for school. In fact, you've read how you might face a double-digit tuition increase this fall if state lawmakers fail to restore a 10 percent cut in state aid or pay for increases that Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm has proposed. Now you find out that SVSU is providing a new perk for its full-time employees -- a semi-membership at the Bay City Country Club. Yep, you read it right. The university has paid $25,000 for a one-year trial...

The increase would be $664 a year at CU-Boulder. Tuition also would rise at the Denver and Colorado Springs campuses. Tuition would spike about 14 percent... Resident students would pay $5,218 per year under the plan, which could be approved Thursday. The proposal also calls for a $724 increase for the average full-time, in-state student at the Denver campus... The university's total budget would be $2.2 billion, or an increase in revenue of 6.5 percent. The proposal would increase financial aid at CU-Boulder by 40 percent, in addition to meeting increases in utilities costs and staff salaries.

BOSTON -- Setting the stage for a new fight over the rights of illegal immigrants in Massachusetts, the state Board of Higher Education looked at whether illegal immigrant students should be entitled to in-state tuition rates if they go to a state university. NewsCenter 5's Amalia Barreda reported that the Massachusetts Taxpayers Association said between 400 and 600 illegal immigrants would go on to higher learning if the Legislature approved a bill making them eligible for in-state tuition at state schools. The issue was on the agenda at Thursday morning's meeting of the Board of Higher Education, which has supported...

A revolt is brewing among college presidents against the influential college rankings put out each year by U.S. News & World Report. Dozens of schools have recently refused to fill out surveys used to calculate ranks, and efforts are now afoot for a collective boycott. Colleges have complained in the past about the rankings. But recent events have rallied opposition, including the tying of presidential pay to ranking at Arizona State University and accusations by the president of Sarah Lawrence College that the magazine threatened to use hocus-pocus data to stand in for average SAT scores at the school. At...

The MD Catholic Conference has come out in support of HB6 which will provide in-state tuition to illegal aliens. They hae sent out an email to all those on their list linking to a three page document showing why you should support it. Their arguements range from the emotional to the cost is minimal. If the MD Catholic Conference had spend as much time fighting for vouchers or tax breaks for those of us who send our children to Catholic school (and subsidize public education), then they would have my support. At this point, I am calling for their abolishment....

A controversial proposal to end resident college tuition for eligible undocumented students failed in a tied House vote Tuesday. Lawmakers voted 37-37 on HB224, one vote short of the 38 it needed to pass. Rep. Keith Grover, a Provo Republican who co-sponsored the bill, was the only lawmaker not on the floor to vote. After the vote, a few cheers were heard in the House galleries where the public sits. The bill could be reconsidered today, leaving people who oppose the repeal nervous. House rules require that the motion for reconsideration be made within a day of the original vote....

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- These days, many of us leave the myriad, line-by-line tax decisions to our professional preparer or the mystery men behind our tax software. But given the increasing complexity and ever-changing nature of the U.S. tax code, it makes sense to keep abreast of some of the most valuable perks yourself. After all, it doesn't hurt to make sure your software program is steering you in the right direction or to check in with your preparer to see whether you qualify for a tax break. "I'm blown away by all the changes," said Michelle Maton, an enrolled...

Opponents of a law that allows undocumented students to pay in-state college tuition are adamant that their efforts to repeal the benefit have nothing to do with racial discrimination and everything to do with encouraging respect for the law. They were glad to see that HB224 moved closer Friday to becoming a reality - after years of being halted early in the legislative process. The House Education Committee voted 9-5 in favor of repealing the in-state college tuition law. The vote was split along party lines with the exception of Rep. Kory Holdaway, the only Republican who voted against the...

A Naval Academy midshipman who was expelled after he failed a running test will have to pay the Navy for the cost of his education. Baltimore County resident Frank Shannon had asked that the 127-thousand dollar bill be waived. But a senior Navy official rejected his appeal this month, saying the academy provided Shannon with ample opportunity to meet its minimum fitness standards. Shannon failed 12 of 18 fitness tests, and failed in a series of attempts to run a mile-and-a-half in 10 minutes and 30 seconds. In his final test, he was 20 seconds short. He was expelled just...

As a young child, I used to love those coyote and roadrunner cartoons from Warner Brothers where the coyote barreled off the edge of a cliff, took a few extra steps and then looked down. This was then followed by Wile E. Coyote, Super Genius getting his traffic ticket from the gravity cops. It’s a shame that Nancy Pelosi’s idea to cut student loan interest rates in half by legislative fiat won’t lead to a similarly amusing comeuppance. Actually, this law will most certainly lead to someone’s embarrassing pratfall, it’s just that no one that has contributed to the outrageous...

Student leaders at California's two public university systems vowed Thursday to work toward rolling back Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget proposal to raise fees next year by about 7% at UC campuses and 10% at Cal States. Under the governor's plan, undergraduate UC student fees for state residents would rise about $495 to about $7,347 next year, including some individual campus costs but not including housing, books and other expenses. Cal State students would see such basic fees go up $252 to $3,451. The proposal, which faces reviews by the Legislature and academic governing boards, would keep community college costs at...

They say they're fighting for immigrants' rights and now protesters say they're taking that fight to Super Bowl 2008. Demonstrators went after national attention by heading to the University of Phoenix Stadium Monday with their protest against Proposition 300, but the march was cut short by the city of Glendale. Hundreds of students and demonstrators came out to protest the new law, which denies in-state tuition for illegal immigrants.Students marched from Camelback Road to Missouri Avenue, but there they were stopped by officers and turned around. The city says organizers missed a deadline to file for a permit, but marchers...

ATLANTA - High-performing students who grew up in Georgia but are undocumented immigrants soon won't qualify for discounted tuition at state colleges. The change is necessary to comply with the state's new aggressive immigration laws that went into effect in July, said Burns Newsome, attorney for the Georgia Board of Regents. It means students who have high grades but are in the country illegally will have to pay the much higher out-of-state tuition rates rather than being allowed to pay in-state tuition. Sen. Chip Rogers, R-Woodstock, architect of the tough immigration laws, said the state should not subsidize the education...