Killing the College Student with Fees

College Tuition Up Sharply Amid Recession

In this article, Justin Pope provides some great insight and staggering numbers on the rising costs of tuition in the country. The average tuition in the country is now at about $7,000 per year at a 4-year public college, up over 6% from last year despite the economy. Costs are constantly on the rise despite all of the cuts in funding and all of the budget cuts colleges are making to deal with the economy. Despite this number, they say actual incurred costs are only about $1,600 for a 4 year student per year. I would like to know where they are getting that amount from. I am thankfully and gratefully lucky that Georgia has the HOPE scholarship and I was only "forced" to take out about $9,000 in student loans over the 4 and a half year period I was in school. Much of that went to living expenses though and had nothing to do with the college. There is a much greater underlying problem with the public education system though, that they will not speak of. Teachers, professors, researchers, deans, presidents, and so on are getting so filthy rich from the public colleges it is sickening. Just check out Open Georgia. On this site you can find all of the salaries for state/public employees for the entire state of Georgia. I attended Georgia State University and at this DI-AA (D one double a) school, there are over 40 people making over $200,000 a year. These people rarely even see a student, they simply preside over the school. Now I am not belittling their jobs, because it is important to run a school to the best of its ability and be competitive with other schools in the state and the country. But for purposes of serving the state and the educational system, why should they make so much money?! Why are they entitled, being employees of the Georgia government, to make more than our Governor (who made $137,000 in base salary in 2008)? Because it is deemed important? Why am I making so little to teach 700 kids a year and the president of GSU receives over $400,000 to preside over a college? At UGA (University of Georgia) there are over 100 people making over $200,000 a year. Why did fees go up? Because people higher up refused to take part in cost cutting measures. I am sure that they took like a 1% pay cut or are now working 10 less days a year now than they did last year, but how in the world can you justify so much money being spent on a salary at a government entity? It is a waste of funds. I would say that if everyone making over $200,000/year was to give up between 30 and 40,000 of their salary, which would equal what regular teachers have had to forfeit due to stae mandated furloughs to balance the ill begotten state budget, our cost to enroll would not go up. During my stint at GSU, the cost for me to attend 4 or 5 classes a semester went up over $1,000. My first year in 2004 it cost only $1600 for full time tuition plus about $250 in fees. By December of 2008 it would have cost me $2900 for full time tuition without fees. Luckily I only needed 2 or 3 classes so I paid for part-time. Again, the HOPE grant payed for most of it, but that is still from a state-funded program through lottery ticket sales. Today, students are having to pay so much more for so little education. I was baffled by the costs of some master's programs. I am extremely excited to be a part of VCSU, not only because of the Tech Ed program, but because it is affordable. UGA, Ga Tech, Va Tech, and even Purdue wanted in excess of $25,000 per year for their master's programs. And for what? A piece of paper that says I completed a rigorous program and forked out almost $60,000 for a $10,000/year raise? I believe the term for what we are trying to do today is, "Work smarter, not harder". I do not want to be in debt for my education for the rest of my life, I will find what works at a better price. The material and knowledge I have gained here at VCSU far out ranks the opportunity I could have had to call myself a UGA graduate.