| Colorado's fiscal neglect of higher education funding started long before the current recession. For years we've ranked near the bottom in state and local support for higher ed, resulting in a serious affordability crisis, as reported back in a 2008 national higher ed report card.
Now, Colorado's colleges and universities are struggling to cope with continuing cuts and a looming 2011 funding cliff. The Denver Post reports that part of CSU's approach will be tuition increases:
Colorado State University students will likely see a 9 percent increase in tuition next year, according to Rick Miranda, CSU's interim provost.
Colorado higher education institutions are scrambling to cut costs and find new revenue ahead of a funding crunch that will leave them short a collective $230 million - or more - in 2011, when federal stimulus money runs dry. . . .
A tuition increase would follow a 9 percent tuition hike approved for the Fort Collins campus last year for the 2009-2010 school year. . . CSU tuition has increased every year since 2001.
Over on the EdNews blog, Paul Teske, Dean of the UCD School of Public Affairs, asks the frighteningly relevant question, "How low can higher ed go?", documenting some of the real life consequences of our lack of adequate investment:
For example, the research evidence is clear that college students are more likely to stay in school if they are taught, in their freshman year, by tenure track, or at least full time faculty members, who have time to mentor them. And yet, due to limited resources, most institutions employ part-time adjuncts to teach the majority of freshman courses, who don't have time for mentoring. We know this isn't good for achieving our goals of students graduating from college, but we do it anyway, because we have to.
Inaction is no longer an option. To become part of the solution, you can stand with "I am Higher Education" and sign the Great Futures Pledge.
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