Tuition at MSU continues to climb. For the 2013-14 academic year alone, it shot up by an average of 2.8 percent. In many states across the nation, funding for higher education has taken a downward spiral.
Fed. plans on college costs still up in air
During an August bus tour through New York and Pennsylvania, President Barack Obama announced a new college affordability plan, a controversial attempt at keeping college costs down at a time when student debt has reached an all-time-high of $1 trillion nationwide.
Higher education advocates in Michigan say they aren’t sure if Obama’s plan to tie a federal ranking system to university funding will be a boom or a bust for college students.
“The big question is exactly how he is going to work out the details of the plan,” College of Education Dean Donald Heller said. “It’s really hard to tell who’s gonna win and who’s gonna lose.”
The president’s plan would give positive marks for low tuition fees, more graduates and greater post-graduation incomes, and negative ratings for schools with the most baccalaureate debt. Congress would then need to tie federal funding with better ratings to drive costs down.
Heller and other faculty say it’s impossible to tell if this would benefit students until the Obama administration hashes out more details.
“I don’t know that this plan, or any, will be a silver bullet,” said Brendan Cantwell, an assistant professor with MSU’s Department of Educational Administration.
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State Rep. Sam Singh, D-East Lansing, said he remains hopeful Obama’s plan could drive costs down for students and foster “a stronger partnership between the state government and the federal government.”
“The most effective way would be to leverage state funds with federal resources, and I hope that will be a part of this plan,” Singh said.
He said he hopes some institutions — such as state universities with higher tuition fees — aren’t hurt by the plan.
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MSU is the sixth most expensive Big Ten university, with tuition and fees at $12,623SB a semester. The University of Michigan is slightly more, charging $12,994SB per semester. Northwestern University is the most expensive, at $43,779.
Working out the details of how funding would be tied to the rating system could prove to be a long political battle.
And as costs continue to rise, Cantwell said there are fewer jobs for those without a degree, presenting further challenges for those in the job market.
“The cost of not going to ?college is higher than it was in the past,” he said.
