Price of college keeps rising
By KEVIN RICHERT
IdahoEDNews.org
Danfer Reyes will be a first-generation high school graduate.
The Wood River High School senior wants to be chef or a restaurateur, and plans to go to college to study culinary arts. But since he can't afford college, he's joining the Idaho National Guard, hoping part-time military service will help him cover college costs.
It's a tradeoff. Time also works against Danfer, and any other student who puts off college: The longer the wait, the higher the cost.
Idaho's political and education leaders want students such as Danfer to continue their education after high school. Ultimately, state leaders want 60 percent of 25- to 34-year-olds to hold some kind of college degree or professional certificate.
University leaders put the best face on the affordability issue. But they also know they are losing some students — ones who never show up, and ones who drop out along the way.
“We're asking 18-year-olds to make sophisticated financial decisions, and that's tough,” University of Idaho President Chuck Staben said.
COLLEGE MATH, 101
“I think the media loves to talk about sticker price,” Boise State University President Bob Kustra said.
And Idaho's college sticker price remains one of the lowest in the nation. On average, only five states charge a lower in-state tuition.
However, not all the numbers are as encouraging.
This fall, the average fees at Idaho's four-year colleges and universities came to $7,078 — up 34 percent since 2010-11. During that same time period, the rate of inflation was 13 percent, according to the federal Consumer Price Index.
Over the past four decades, governors and legislators have engineered a conscious and continuing cost shift. They now expect students and their parents to pick up a greater share of the cost of college.
Two snapshots put this shift into sharp focus.
In 1977-78, Idaho colleges and universities received $54.2 million in tax dollars from the state's general fund, while student fees made up a $3.8 million sliver of the budget.
In 2017-18, that gap has shrunk almost entirely. Colleges and universities will receive $287 million in state tax dollars, and $262 million in student fees.
Over 40 years, the general fund budget for higher ed has increased fivefold — while the amount of money collected in fees has increased by a factor of 69.
AND COLLEGE HISTORY, 101
The $287 million higher education budget accounts for 8.3 percent of this year's state budget. A quarter century ago, higher education received 13.8 percent of the state budget, a share that hasn't been matched since.
To be sure, state budget-writers have faced other fiscal pressures over the past 25 years — the rising cost of Medicaid, for example, and the pressure to reverse unprecedented K-12 spending cuts. But the cost shift carries consequences, and for years, Idaho's politicians have been warned of them.
Two warnings came in 2012, in the wake of the recession.
For a report titled “Reducing Barriers to Higher Education,” the state's Office of Performance Evaluations interviewed students, counselors and staffers working on TRIO, a federal program designed to help at-risk students make the jump to college. State auditors heard the same message over and over:
“The ability to pay for college is by far the greatest barrier to overcome when making decisions about pursuing postsecondary education. Whether it is access to financial aid and scholarships or insufficient grant amounts, paying for postsecondary education weighs heavily on the minds of both counselors and students.”
Later that year, the State Board of Education launched Complete College Idaho, which has grown into a multiyear and multimillion dollar effort to help students succeed on campus. The State Board's Complete College Idaho Plan included some sobering statistics about college affordability: Young people from wealthy families finish college at a 60 percent rate, while young people from poorer families graduate at only a 7 percent rate.
“This disparity does not exist because young people from higher-income families are smarter or more talented — they are simply afforded more opportunities.”
AFFORDABILITY OPTIONS
In 2017, Gov. Butch Otter's higher education task force spent considerable time talking about affordability. The group recommended putting money into an “adult completer” scholarship for older students who are short of a degree.
Another recommendation: Make the Idaho Opportunity Scholarship available to students with high school GPAs or 2.5 or higher. The current cutoff is a 3.0 GPA, and as it is, thousands of eligible students still don't get a share of the limited money available.
The idea of tuition-free community college — an idea that is picking up momentum in cities and states across the country — received only a passing mention. And no committee support.
For a state that doesn't even fully fund its Opportunity Scholarship, tuition-free community college is a “mega-leap,” said State Board President Linda Clark, a task force co-chair.
“Frankly, we have some preliminary hills to climb before we can even get to that conversation,” she said.
As state Rep. Ilana Rubel points out, free college isn't means-tested, so it's available to students regardless of ability to pay. But after serving on the task force, Rubel isn't sure the group did enough to address rising costs and scholarship scarcity.
“I think we're really underinvesting in the affordability side of things,” said Rubel, D-Boise.
Editor's note:
In this series Idaho Education News takes an in-depth look at the state's “60 percent goal.” Why is Idaho still struggling to convince high school graduates to continue their education?