By Patricia Alex, Staff Writer. The Record.
The sluggish economy has accelerated a shift in how higher education is paid for, with students and their families shouldering more of the cost of attending public colleges and universities as state funding declines, according to a national report released on Tuesday.
Tuition and fees now account for a much larger share of the cost of educating a student at a public college, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found.
The cost for families has spiked significantly in some states, such as Arizona and California, which saw tuition increases of more than 72 percent over the past five years, according to the report. Those states are catching up with New Jersey, where the increases weren’t as steep according to the report – just over 13 percent between 2008 and 2013 — but tuition and fees remain among the highest in the nation, averaging over $12,000 annually. The national average is $8,655, according to The College Board.
The report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal-leaning group, calls for more public spending on higher education but, given the economy, it is unclear whether that will happen anytime soon.
The report found that, adjusting for inflation, states cut funding for higher education by 27 percent since 2008. Susanna Tardi, executive vice president the American Federation of Teachers New Jersey, which represents 20,000 faculty and staff members at the state’s public colleges, called the report “a wakeup call.”
Tardi, a sociology professor at William Paterson University, said even the state’s relatively generous aid packages for students aren’t enough to offset such increases, as evidenced by mounting student debt. In a statement issued by the union, she said she worried that cuts to the federal budget could further squeeze the states.
In New Jersey, funding for higher education remains essentially flat in the proposed state budget for next year while looming costs for a reorganization that takes effect this summer are still not fully apparent. Rutgers University will absorb most of the state’s medical university, based in Newark.
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