Today I’m doffing my columnist hat. In its place I’m donning another that says “Dad of two college students.” This graduation season seems like a good time to consider the extraordinary costs of in-state tuition at Virginia’s colleges and universities.
How the heck have things gotten so out of whack?
The Radford Board of Visitors raised tuition prices last week by about 3.2 percent. Most of the other state universities have approved increases in that neighborhood. Virginia Tech has a tuition increase in the offing.
And this is billed almost as “good” news, in the wake of double-digit or nearly double-digit increases at state universities in recent years.
It’s going to cost a kid from Virginia $4,682 to attend college there in the fall semester. That’s just for tuition and mandatory fees. It doesn’t count room, board or other expenses. At Virginia Tech, tuition and fees are likely to be about $5,500 per semester.
Those prices are outrageously high. And you cannot blame most of the increase on inflation. Consider this illustration:
In 1978, when I entered the University of Maryland, in-state tuition and fees for one semester was $400. At the University of Virginia, the cost was $402 per semester.
Back then, the minimum wage was $2.65 per hour. In other words, at either institution, a kid could go to school in exchange for the equivalent of roughly 151 hours of work.
Today, the minimum wage is $7.25. (If it had kept up with inflation since 1978, it would be $9.32). That means one semester at Virginia Tech next fall is going cost about 758 hours of work. One semester at Radford cost 645 hours of work.
Even adjusting the minimum wage for inflation, the costs are almost four times what they were for in-state tuition and fees in the late 1970s.
The question is why?
“The major reason is Virginia, like every other state until very recently, has cut in half its state support — in inflation adusted terms — for in state’s students,” said Don Finley, president of the Virginia Business Higher Education Council. “It’s a very serious thing. That’s why these kids are so much in debt.
Finley was talking averages, since 2000, which is how far back the VBHEC has tracked the data. Larry Hincker, vice pressent —— at Virginia Tech, offered some specifics for just the past decade.
For the 2000-01 school year, the state support per in-state student at Virginia Tech totaled $9,501. Last year, that support dropped to $6,083, and if you adjust that inflation, it is actually $4,300 in terms of dollars in 2001.
In other words, state tuition support to Va Tech has dropped 55 percent in the past 10 years.
Because high education is a prime driver of economic growth, the commonwealth once had a share-costs-policy with a stated goal that Virginia taxpayers would cover 75 percent of an in-state student’s tuition costs, while he or she was responsible for 25 percent.
Because Virginia never came close to that, they moved those goal posts to 70 and 30 percent respectively. And then they moved them again to the current 67 and 33 percent.
And we still aren’t even close to that one. At Virginia Tech, state support covers about 41 percent of the cost of educating and in-state student. The other 59 percent comes from that student’s tuition, said Larry Hincker, —–.
Not beer. In 1978, you could get a six pack of Budweiser for one hour’s work at the minimum wage and still have some change left over. The cost in terms of the minimum wage is about the same today.
Compared to the minimum wage, in-state tuition is five times as expensive as it used to be.
Adjusted for inflation since 1978, the minimum wage would be $9.32.
Now, inflation has increased more than then minimum wage has since 1978. Adjust for inflation, it would be $9.32. Even at that wage,
In 1978, in-state tutition and fees for one semester at Maryland were just under $400. I still recall writing the check. At the University of Virginia, the cost was almost identical: $402.
That meant you could attend college full time for 151 hours of work, which was well within the ability of a middle-class student to afford.
Next year, in-state tuition and fees for one semester at Virginia Tech (a comparable school to Maryland in just about every way except football) will cost right around $5,500. That equals 760 hours of work at today’s minimum wage.
It’s true the minimum wage hasn’t kept pace with inflation. If it had, it would be around $8.75. But even at that rate, a semester’s tuition at Tech would equal 628 of work.
In other words, even adjusting for inflation, in-state tuition is four times as expensive now as it was then.
Why? There are a lot of reasons.
The people who have the most control over that cost are college administrator and state lawmakers.
T
Have you looked at in-state tuition at Virginia’s colleges and universities lately? It’s astoundingly expensive — not necessarily relative to other states, but to recent history. And that pretty much goes for everywhere. It’s not just Virginia.
Back in 1978, when was an instate- junior at the University of Maryland full-time tuition and fees were right around $800 per year. That number does not include room and board.
The minimum wage was $2.65 per hour then. Thus, a year’s tuition and fees cost 302 hours for anyone who worked at that rate.
The minimum wage is now $7.25. And do you have any idea how many hours a Virginia resident has to work at that rate to be a The number is right around 1,450.
