Tuesday, November 22, 2011

The College Affordability Crunch in Kentucky

Meeting the Costs of College in an Era of Eroding State Support

A decade of state budget cuts in higher education,
rising tuition, underfunded need-based financial
aid and stagnating incomes are combining to make
college less affordable in Kentucky. Student debt
is on the rise, and Kentucky's college students
--particularly low-income and adult students--
face significant challenges in paying for college.
The state needs a new commitment to college
affordability for all its citizens.

Download a pdf of this report.

This from the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy:
Progress in higher education is essential to building a productive and innovative economy, an informed and empowered citizenry, and a higher quality of life among families and communities. However, affordability of higher education is a growing challenge. Over the last ten years, Kentucky has shifted the primary responsibility of paying for postsecondary education away from the state in the form of appropriations to institutions and over to students in the form of tuition and fees. State need-based financial aid reaches only a portion of those who qualify and has received shrinking priority relative to programs and tax breaks that benefit students with higher incomes. Adult students, among whom higher education needs are substantial, receive limited support. These problems are compounded by trends in federal financial aid and stagnating wages for families. To address these challenges, Kentucky needs a new commitment to college affordability for all its citizens.

Introduction

There is wide agreement that higher education is beneficial to Kentucky’s economic future. Greater educational attainment can increase productivity, attract investment and result in greater innovation and entrepreneurship. It can also help meet growing skills gaps; according to one estimate, by 2018 around half of jobs in Kentucky will require at least some form of postsecondary education.[1] Yet only 28 percent of Kentuckians age 18-64 have an associate’s degree or higher, ranking Kentucky sixth from the bottom.[2]
Higher education is also important to the quality of life for Kentucky’s families and communities. Workers with higher levels of education tend to have higher earnings, giving their families a better chance at a middle-class standard of living.[3] And increases in educational attainment have social benefits. A more educated population is less likely to commit crimes, more likely to be civically involved and more likely to vote.[4]

Since enacting postsecondary education reform in 1997, Kentucky has made important steps forward in higher education attainment. The share of adults ages 25 to 64 with an associate’s degree or higher has climbed from 25 percent in 2000 to 31 percent in 2009. More students are enrolling in college, and graduation rates have improved.[5]

However, huge gaps in higher education remain. Educational attainment levels are still too low. Less than half of those who enroll in four-year universities graduate in six years, while less than a third of those who enroll in community colleges graduate within three years. Thirty-four percent of whites in Kentucky had an associate’s degree or higher in 2009, but only 22 percent of minorities—a gap that has grown since 2000.[6] College attainment also varies widely by geography—30 percent of Oldham County residents ages 25 and older have a two-year degree or higher compared to only five percent of Knox County residents.[7]

There are many factors associated with success in postsecondary education, including: college readiness; the importance of education to career and personal goals; the accessibility of educational opportunities (due to time constraints and geographic location); the support services that make college attendance possible; and students’ aptitude and capacity to persevere. Another critical factor is the affordability of higher education. On that factor Kentucky has been losing ground.

State is shifting higher education costs to students

Over the past ten years, the primary responsibility of paying for higher education in Kentucky has quietly shifted away from the state in the form of appropriations to public universities and community colleges and to students in the form of tuition and fees.  Figure 1 shows that in 2000 the state paid two dollars of higher education expenses for every dollar paid by students. But since 2008, students have paid a larger share than state government. [8]


Sources: Office of the State Budget Director, Kentucky Revenue Department
Making students the primary payers of higher education was not part of the state’s vision for comprehensive postsecondary education reform contained in major legislation passed in 1997.[9] Instead, this shift was the byproduct of budgeting choices in the context of an inadequate state tax system in need of reform.[10] In the face of tight budgets, lawmakers in essence chose to increase taxes on students.

In inflation-adjusted terms, the state’s appropriation for public universities and community colleges was 14 percent lower in 2010 than it was in 2000. Over that same period, enrollment in higher education increased 32 percent in part due to greater recognition of the need for higher education for success in the workforce—and more recently, as people head back to school because of a lack of job opportunities. To keep up with costs in the face of climbing enrollments, higher education institutions dramatically increased tuition after a decade of relatively flat tuition rates.

In effect, Kentucky has gradually moved to a more market-based approach to higher education in which broad-based subsidies to lower the costs of college have declined. Kentucky did make a commitment to increase investment in financial aid, deciding in 1998 to dedicate almost all of its lottery revenues to aid programs. Most of those funds have gone to a three-pronged system—two programs based on need, the College Access Program (CAP) and the Kentucky Tuition Grant (KTG) program, and one program based primarily on merit, the Kentucky Educational Excellence Scholarship (KEES) program (see appendix for more on state financial aid programs).

While those funding increases were important, state funding for financial aid has grown more slowly than tuition. Figure 2 shows revenue from tuition and fees compared to state spending through the Kentucky Higher Education Assistance Authority, which operates state financial aid programs.[11] Institutional tuition revenues have grown 66 percent since 2004 while state financial aid spending has grown only 15 percent...

6 comments:

Samantha Booth said...

I believe that Kentucky is definitely struggling when it comes to aid in post-secondary education fees. It is a scary thought that tuition fees are increasing at more than triple the speed of financial aid. it is also hard to comprehend that kentucky is sixth from the bottom when it comes to the amount of people with some sort of post-secondary educational degree. In this day in age and especially in the future it will be imperative that people have college degrees if they want any form of a middle class life. If Kentucky wants to improve their number of college graduates than they are going to have to increase their amount of financial aid and not only to the lower class. Paying for college in a middle class family is also very difficult. On average it can cost up to 3000$ a semester even with a full paid tuition scholarship and not many families be them middle class or lower class have 6000$ to throw around each year. Not to mention the cost of gas, etc. I think is is imperative that financial aid be increased and given to lower and middle class families in order for Kentucky to increase graduation rates for post-secondary education.

Joseph Hamilton said...

I knew that the cost of higher education was increasing over the past few years and that it was quite expensive, but after reading this article I am now even more blown away at the fact that the revenue for tuition and fees has increased 66% the past 7 years while financial aid is increasing at a snail's pace at 15%. Coming from a middle class family I know the struggles we actually go through to pay for college. The only financial aid I receive is in the form of loans which eventually come back around for me to pay. Therefore, I have first hand experience on how this gradual increase of financial aid is counteracted by the booming increase of tuition and fees. I understand that we are in an economic recession and the state probably can't hand out money like it could in the past, but even with that in mind they should also know that by raising tuition they are not only causing some people to not even attend school, but they're almost "punishing" the middle class and lower classes by making them pay for the majority of their schooling without financial aid. This will be the downfall of higher education and college will become something only the rich can afford if something is not done soon.

Ashley Friend said...

As a college student myself I can see the challenges facing students due to the high cost of tuition. Since the tuition rates are rising higher, faster than the amount of financial aid provided by the state many students are struggling more to find ways to pay for college. More and more students are completely turned away from financial aid each year. I agree that if something doesn't change soon we will get to the point of college only being attended by the rich because they are the only ones that can afford. The best jobs go to those with a college education but students have to go into such extreme debts to attain that education that many see it as being pointless.

Megan DeWald said...

As a college student in my 3rd year, I was already aware that the price of tuition is constantly on the rise, but I these statistics are frightening almost. Especially the fact that Kentucky is one of the states with the lowest rates of college graduates. It's almost like there will soon be no hope for middle class offspring like myself to make something better of themselves than what their parents did because college won't be afforable. I don't see how anyone but the rich will be able to afford a college education with financial aid rates not being able to keep up with sky-rocketing tution rates.

Anonymous said...

Folks, you all need to realize that it takes money supply students with quality higher education. Just think how much better of an education you have now that EKU has lighted intraumural fields which few use, artifical turf for six games year to be veiwed by stands that 1/3 full, a new performing arts center with tickets too expensive for students to purhcase, an old mansion across the street which will no doubt become a money pit with no instrutional value and new 21st century in demand programs like golf course managment and pilot training (wonder how many veteran pilots are looking for jobs in struggling industry?).

I am not trying to be a jerk and recognize that institutions have to market themselves and that EKU has built both a business/technology center as well as science facility. Government funding environment has also made justice facility grow substantially but with that said, I just wonder how some of the funds we have spent for new trees and mulch, redoing the fountains, paying for billboards within less than 30 miles of the school or building two new student activities centers could have been used not to construct classrooms for folks working out of building that are well past their use or in need of dire renovation but just simply to hire more faculty to actually serve the students we are trying to recruit.

Anonymous said...

I just read in the paper this weekend that EKU has over a dozen planes at the Madison County airport for their aviation program, freshly painted with EKU logo no less. How can that program be self sustaining with a program of barely 100 students? Where did we get money for a fleet of planes when the govenor is selling the two the state owns? Wonder how many scholarships, online periodical subscriptions, professional development opportunties this university could have afforded its community instead of paying for airplanes that spend most of their time sitting unused in some hanger at a rural airport which offers almost no navigation, communication, diverse traffic, environmental variance or other high level aviation interaction or experience.

Makes you wonder why we are suppose to worry about turning off electronics during winter break when God only knows how much we are paying for airplane maintenance annuals, increased insurance and fuel.