U-M, MSU fall tuition skyrockets (12.3% and 13.5%)

[Bozita]

Here's your tax cuts, folks! Anybody out there earning 12.3% more than last year?

Will this make the military the only way for working class kids to get a college degree?


http://www.detnews.com/2005/schools/0507/22/A01-255974.htm

Friday, July 22, 2005


U-M, MSU fall tuition skyrockets

Incoming freshmen at the state's two largest colleges will pay about $1,000 more for classes.

By Doug Guthrie and Kendra Snyder / The Detroit News



The cost of attending Michigan's two largest colleges increased Thursday, following a statewide pattern of substantial tuition hikes at public universities.

A 12.3 percent increase at the University of Michigan will add $1,012 to a full-time student's annual bill. Including room and board, an incoming freshman will pay $16,587 for a year in Ann Arbor.

Michigan State University boosted tuition 13.5 percent for all incoming students and 9.3 percent for those returning to campus. Including room and board, a first-year MSU undergraduate will pay $13,688.

The increases, prompted by uncertain state funding to universities, hit families just six weeks before students begin returning to campuses.

more...

[sonicx]

1. well, at least gays can't marry

:eyes:

[Erika]

2. Bush invoking the caste system

Only the elite and wealthy will be able to afford college. Bush says let the rest of them flip burgers. Of course, W was born into the elite and wealthy.

The caste system will help him as the emperor of the corporate globalists delivering maximum profits to the corporate rich.

[The_Casual_Observer]

3. The predictable freep response to this might be: 12% is actually

still quite small for the average aerospace employee ( average freeper)
earning a combined family income of 180,000.

Apparently real life shit like college tuition isn't figure3d into the .00003% inflation figures that they shovel out to the public every day.

[Erika]

5. Bush is dooming our kids to a caste system

Where only the elitists can get ahead. The others are doomed to flipping burgers.

Bush's America.

[blonndee]

4. OU (Oklahoma) has raised tuition at least twice in the two years I've been

here. If they can't draft a de jure DRAFT, they'll make a de facto draft.

If I weren't getting my MA and weren't over 23, I'd be pfuukked.

**edited to change were to weren't**

[Yupster]

6. College costs have been going up at twice

the rate of inflation for twenty years now.

Does anyone who works for a college have any reasons why this has happened? Colleges are pricing themselves out of middle class America's range.

[Erika]

7. Bush has cut student loan eligibility

and slashed Pell grants.

State Universities have had their federal funds cut dramatically under Bush.

[Bozita]

10. It's part of the "ownership society" ... They own it. You don't.

Obvious solution is another round of tax cuts.

See your local Army recruiter.

[Erika]

13. Sad but true

Today's middle and low income class kids "volunteer" to fight Bush's war in hopes of earning money for an education. How truly sad.

I hope Bush IS impeached for what he has done to the fabric of our society. The sooner the better.

[Tux]

11. Also

Under Clinton.

[Yupster]

15. That's true no doubt but

for 25 years inflation has gone up 3-4 % a year and almost every year college costs have gone up at double that rate.

I know te money's not going to the teachers because Iknow a lot of them. So where's the money going to?

[barb162]

30. good question plus so many schools are only using temp teachers

these days so they don't have to pay benefits, offer tenure, etc. Is the money going into bigger football stadiums? sports stuff in gneeral? I have no idea.

[mccoyn]

24. I used to work for UM.

A couple years ago they were cutting back on raises. The reason being state funding had dropped. This was right after the recession/Bush tax cut nightmare. It sucked being a recent grad, unable to find a job anywhere else due to the economy and unable to get a raise because my employers were being cut off. <sarcasm> Of course my parents got a $600 check so it was worth it. </sarcasm>

[pseudostar]

25. Ill take this one

When you cut federal taxes, less of that Fed money goes to the States in the form of grants. As such, the lower levels of government must make up the difference.

Therefore, when the "education" president cuts cash grants to state universities and the states are already running close to the red, tuition must be raised.

[PA Democrat]

27. Interesting article here on reasons for increases

In research for his book "Tuition Rising: Why Colleges Cost So Much," Cornell economics professor Ronald G. Ehrenberg found several forces at work that resulted in higher tuition costs – some of which are tied to a school's desire to be perceived as among the best.

From state-of-the-art facilities and technology to providing resources for cutting-edge research (genomics, anyone?), there's a pressure to surpass the Joneses to attract the best students. And that costs money.

Cost cutting at private colleges is also difficult if it means the president or provost would lose the support of a large portion of his or her faculty, since without their support it becomes very tough to run the school, Ehrenberg argues.

More at:

http://money.cnn.com/2004/05/18/pf/college/tuition_increases/

[Bozita]

8. $1000 tuition increase can be offset by a $.50/hr increase in pay

That's assuming you're working 40hr/wk for a full year.

Any hourly workers out there who got a fifty cent per hour pay increase in the last year?

[Bryan Buchan]

9. Those in Michigan can send a big f*cking

thank you to Mr. John F*ucking Engler....he was governor of MI before Jennifer Granholm took the state Gov. ship back to the Democratic Party. She is having to suffer some big deficit problems because of that bastard. I am a born michigander now living in Arizona...thanks to the lack of an economy in mich. thanks to that Bastard Engler it may be several years before I could afford to live there again...I miss Lake Michigan....esp living in the desert in Arizona with temps recently reaching and exceeding 115....ouch!

Anyway, Engler is to blame for that mess....he screwed with the public school system for years....may he rot! And may the pretty Amway boys trying to unseat Granhom rot as well. Rich cushy environment wasting bastards they are as well, have ruined the bloody Grand River twice over that I remember....there used to be a saying in Grand Rapids...."Shit happens everytime it rains in Grand Rapids."

What anyone does...don't buy in to the Amway pyramid scheme....argh! They should be boycott'ed

Bryan

[dad]

32. Amway reorganized as Alticor in 2000,

now distributes their crap in 80 countries.

[Robert Oak]

12. yup, outsource the jobs plus make it impossible

for Americans to get university degrees.

It's a huge "race to the bottom" for America.

[barb162]

31. It fits perfectly together, doesn't it?

Why get educated for zero jobs. Add in fundamentalism and then no matter how poor or starving you are, you will offer your suffering up to God.

[Robert Oak]

33. Yes

There is a big reason neo-cons have latched onto the fundamentalists...
and it isn't just "abortion"...it's a whole culture that assists
the neo-conservatives to get all of the money and keep the masses in poverty (gee wiz I'm sounding like Karl Marx here, but he had some points!)

[Erika]

14. We are no longer a leader in science and math

This administration could care less. They got buddies around the globe who will contribute to their collective profits.

What do they need our kids for other than fighting their wars for corporate profits? While they hang out a carrot for educational funds if the kid survives.

[oostevo]

16. I wish I could pay that little ...

This will probably sound rather elitist and snobbish (or, come to think of it ... I'm sure it will. Sorry in advance. I mean this as a commentary on the quality of our education system)

To get a good education in science and math, with decent class sizes, I attend a university that, I've just found out, has decided to charge me nearly $50,000 this year. $50,000.

I wish I had the luxury of paying $16,587 per year.

[Bozita]

18. Which is more ... $16,587 on a $37,000 family income or $50,000 ...

... on a family income of $150,000/yr?

IIRC, the $37,000 figure represents the average family income in the US.

That $16,587 is actually 44.8% of the average total family income BEFORE ANY KIND OF TAXES.

[BiggJawn]

20. That sounds like "The Jische Theorem"

He wants to take a state Land Grant university into "Preeminence" and figures that if Purdue is going to be regarded in the same class as Havard, then he has to charge the same tuition as Havard.

Tuition is such a SMALL part of the University's annual income, the bulk of the cash coming from grateful Yuppie Alums looking for a tax write-off like putting their name on a 2 megabuck miniature golf facility and GRANTS for RESEARCH from the Military-Industrial Complex....

I wonder about the true value of such high tuition costs. I feel that it's like driving a $90,000 Jaguar vs. a $20,000 Toyota, in that the biggest difference is that the yokels on the sidewalk go "Dah-YUM! That-there's one-a-them Jag-Gwars!" because they both get you to Point B in relative safety and confort.

[pseudostar]

26. Re:"I wish I could pay that little ..."

No need to apologize, it's a choice you made based on your means.

Personally, I decided against the private school route because NY has a great State U system and I was able to graduate with under 20k in loans. Now as a grad I now know what I always suspected, undergrad degrees are worthless, but I dont have to pay off the 100k.

[wli]

17. fascist class warfare as usual

[Warren Stupidity]

19. Inflation is tamed!

Bray the sycophants.

Education: way up.
Energy: way up.
Housing: way up.
Health care: way up.

What exactly are they measuring when they claim that inflation is around 2-3%?

[billyoc]

21. You've hit it on the head, I think.

The poverty draft. This will go a long way to avoiding the embarrassment of having an actual draft, with NAFTA/CAFTA, social services being slashed and tuition out of reach. Many high school grads will face competing with their own grandparents for low-paying jobs and just opt for military service out of desperation. :grr:

[WhiteTara]

22. the new generation of MacSoldiers

that's just what we need...uneducated OFUs that won't question the dictators orders to kill whoever. :grr:

[meganmonkey]

23. They are also increasing need-based grants by 25% or so

which this article fails to mention - in fact, I can't find a link to confirm this but it was on Michigan Radio this morning.

I know that doesn't solve all the problems of the tuition hikes but the goal is that the cost increase won't keep anyone out - and the people who can manage to pay more will have to. In reality, who knows...

Michigan is so fucked, economically speaking, right now. I don't know what else they can do...

x(

[Barkley]

28. Michigan students/ families are still getting a great deal

Student (parents) only pay a fraction of the true costs; the state picks up the rest of the tab. So in effect, the state is transferring thousands of dollars to families with kids enrolled in these schools.

And that's a good thing, especially for middle class families

Raising the tuition, especially so close to the start of school works against this redistribution effect.

Another problem is that the fees and tuition increase but the students don't get smaller classes or more resources; if anything the class sizes increase, course are cut and resources are crowded.

Finally, U-M gets most of its annual operating resources from non-state funding (private donations, research grants, etc); its the "University of Michigan" only in name.

[Ilsa]

29. Texas A&M going up 12%, Prairie View A&M going up 25% but

they had been able to put off tuition increases until this year, from what i understand.