Posted on Fri, May. 09, 2008

Cut tuition increase

Higher-ed panel should slow rising costs

The Kentucky Community and Technical College System and its president, Michael McCall, could do good things with the money from a 13 percent tuition increase.

But sometimes the common good should come first, and this is one of those times.

Kentucky ranks 45th in median household income and is the seventh-poorest state. But Kentuckians must now pay more than the national average to attend a public two-year college or university.

Once low, tuition and fees have climbed 10 percent a year for a decade, while the state has not increased financial aid since 2006.

The effects are showing up in flattening enrollments.

State Auditor Crit Luallen blamed tuition increases for a 900-student decline in full-time Kentucky undergraduates in public universities and colleges in 2006 compared with three years before.

At that rate, she warned last year, the state's goal of doubling the number of college-educated Kentuckians cannot be achieved.

Kentucky is pricing its people out of an education, and for a poor state in the 21st century, that is a slow form of economic suicide.

The Council on Postsecondary Education is expected to consider a proposal that would trim the tuition increases proposed by KCTCS and four universities.

After analyzing voluminous data, the council's staff recommends a 5.2 percent tuition increase instead of the 13 percent sought by KCTCS.

The council's staff also recommends trimming by one percentage point the increases sought by Eastern Kentucky, Kentucky State, Northern Kentucky and Western Kentucky universities.

This would leave them with tuition increases of 7 to 8 percent as they absorb a 6 percent cut in state funding.

The staff recommends approving the 6 to 9 percent increases in tuition sought by the University of Kentucky and three others.

Western Kentucky President Gary Ransdell warned that the recommendations would force "more tough decisions" on the universities.

A weak economy and soaring gasoline prices are forcing tough decisions on Kentucky families. The state can't afford for them to decide that education is out of their reach.

KCTCS is the only portal to higher education for many, so making it affordable is a must.

The proposal before the CPE is moderate. It won't freeze the rise in education costs to families, but it would slow them down. And that's a start.