Free Republic

Saving money for retirement is hard enough. Saving money on top of that to send children to college can seem downright impossible — especially if you look at the nation’s ever-climbing tuition rates. In actual dollars during the 1977-78 school year, the price of tuition, room and board averaged about $1,900 a year at public, degree-granting institutions, and nearly $4,200 at their private counterparts. Compare that with 2007-8: Rates were estimated to be about $11,600 for public institutions and about $29,900 at private ones, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Even adjusting for inflation (in 2006-7 dollars, below),...

I read that the University of Massachusetts is raising its tuition rates by 15 percent, while Dartmouth College is raising theirs by "only" five percent. This is in a year in which the Consumer Price Index rose by only 0.1 percent, the smallest increase in over a half a century. It is more of the same old thing. Raise real tuition fees a lot. If legislatures won't let universities do it, they do it anyhow through the back door --new fees and charges. Slim down staff a tad, give small or no salary increases. But do not try to make...

Though an immigration bill didn’t make it to the full Legislature this year, the issue was debated Wednesday as senators discussed a National Guard education-related bill. Omaha Sen. Ernie Chambers used the time to correct the record. Omaha Sen. Brad Ashford used the time to point out the importance immigration will have in legislative races. And Lincoln Sen. DiAnna Schimek used the time to encourage Congress to work out a humane and compassionate solution for the immigrant issue. Twenty-eight students — illegal immigrants because their parents brought them illegally to the U.S. — attend University of Nebraska campuses and pay...

CINCINNATI (Map, News) - Two college students say the high cost of tuition led them to rob a bank. The men pleaded guilty to two charges of aggravated robbery and six charges of kidnapping. They face 20 years in prison when sentenced Dec. 27. Andrew Butler, 20, a student at the University of Toledo, told Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Steve Martin on Monday that tuition increases outpaced his scholarships and financial aid. Christopher Avery, 22, a student at the University of Cincinnati, said he couldn't pay for summer classes after an internship at a grocery store fell through. "I...

For today's lesson in bias by labeling, class, turn to today's "Annapolis Notebook" in the March 28 Washington Post. It's there that reporter Lisa Rein skewed her portrayal of a debate over tuition for illegal aliens in favor of the liberal Democrats in the Maryland General Assembly, with everything from watering down the label "illegal immigrant" to painting Republicans as angry partisans and Democrats as righteously angry protecters of the underprivileged. While the headline reads: "House Heats Up Over Bill to Give Illegal Immigrants In-State Tuition," Rein herself chooses the term "undocumented immigrants," even though, well, they apparently must have...

Democrats have long attacked President Bush for the historic tax cuts he ushered through Congress during his first term and have promised to reverse at least some of them. But among their top priorities when they take over Congress next month is passing a permanent tax cut of their own. Included in their "Six for '06" platform that they say helped them win majorities in the House and Senate, Democrats promised to: "Make college tuition deductible from taxes, permanently." Their tax cut promise is neither an election-year gimmick, Democrats say, nor a reversal in their long-standing opposition to Mr. Bush's...

After retrieving control of Congress for the first time in a dozen years, Democrats will set out to redefine the domestic agenda through policies they say would address the economic needs of middle- and working-class Americans. Striving for a few quick legislative victories in January and longer-term goals whose details -- and viability -- are not yet certain, Democratic lawmakers want to shift the dialogue on Capitol Hill to workers' pay, college tuition, health-care costs, retirees' income and other issues that touch ordinary families. Their success is not assured. Democrats will hold a tenuous 51 to 49 majority in the...

How many ways can you think of to make money off of students? Well, here's another. I read a report the other day where an independent college counselor in Oregon charged up to $36,000 per student to just help him get into college -- no guarantee! Holy cow! I am definitely in the wrong business. Well, I might be in the right business (education), but I am doing the wrong thing. No matter that the price of college tuition, not to mention room and board and flights back and forth for the holidays and dorm furnishings and cars and and...

The Great American College Tuition Rip-Off By Paul Streitz Mar 3, 2005, 17:56 “How am I going to pay for my kid’s education?” is a nerve-wracking concern to most middle-class parents. “Why do college tuitions keep going up?” they ask. College tuitions have risen above the rate of inflation for twenty-years, not because costs have gone up, but because higher education has found that parents will continually pay more for their children’s education. If you are charging a dollar a doughnut at your store, and you double the price, and the line does not go down, you keep raising the...

Hanover, Penn., – Moral values are being undermined at 30 Catholic colleges during the weeks surrounding St. Valentine’s day. In fact, many students are afflicted by a play called “The V***** Monologues,” which is scheduled to be held on Catholic campuses throughout the country. (Asterisks added for the sake of modesty). TFP Student Action – a conservative organization of Catholic inspiration – is opposing the play, urging its members on 375 campuses to protest. According to the group’s web site: “In one scene, a woman describes her seduction by a lesbian woman when she was 16 years old, declaring it...

STEIN REPORT XXXXX Friday, December 10 2004 13:10:34 ET XXXXX MASS. ILLEGAL ALIENS SEEK IN-STATE TUITION RATE "Advocates for immigrants and refugees yesterday renewed their demand for cheaper, in-state tuition for undocumented immigrants at state colleges, saying the results of the fall elections show that the Legislature can pass the measure without political damage," the Boston Globe reports. "The in-state tuition bill, which was refiled Dec. 1, would allow immigrant students who have lived in Massachusetts for three years and graduated from a Massachusetts high school to pay in-state tuition rates at the state's colleges, regardless of their immigration status....

Mrs. Edwards talking to town hall meeting in Pennsylvania....

Leap year brings tuition hikes, waiting period for abortion By JIM VERTUNO Associated Press Writer AUSTIN New college tuition rates and a 24-hour waiting period for women seeking abortions represent significant changes in Texas policy in 2004. After months of planning, the new laws take effect Jan. 1, rather than September, like most Texas laws. Other changes include a ban on driving on dry riverbeds and how insurers score credit ratings. The Republican-led Legislature loosened its grip on tuition-setting power to allow universities to set their own rates to offset $558 million in state cuts to higher education. Supporters appreciated...

Squeezed by state budget cuts and dwindling endowments, four-year public colleges and universities raised their tuitions and fees by an average of 9.6 percent for the current school year -- the largest price hike in a decade, the College Board reported yesterday. The tuition increases were accompanied by a 6 percent jump in room-and-board charges, raising the average annual cost of attending a four-year public university for students who live on campus to $9,663 -- $672 more than last fall. The tuition increases at public schools outpaced those at the nation's private, four-year colleges and universities, where tuition rose 5.8...