TUITION INCREASES IN MICHIGAN - GOING, GOING, GOING....UP!

We have been hearing on local newscasts and reading in newspapers in recent weeks about the increased tuition levels approved by local community colleges, private universities and state universities around Michigan. The numbers border on staggering. Just today, Wayne State University announced an increase of 13%. Welcome to the world of higher education (think Ward Churchill - eeeckk)!

WWW.rightmichigan.com has posted a number of articles in recent weeks about the current increases that young college first timers, returning undergraduate students and older returning graduate students can expect in the fall of 07’.  Articles such as “Statewide, Universities Jack Up Tuition Rates. U-Mich Repeats Lie First Exposed by ZR years ago” by Chetly posted on 7/21/07 and “Tuition Increases Amidst GVSU Building Palooza” by Amanda posted on 7/17/07.  Each article provided details on a breakdown of room & board along with the actual amount of the increase a full time student could expect in final dollars and cents.  One of the articles expressed frustration over the continued escalation of costs. One of the articles discussed supposed costs reductions at one school while the same school complained state aid was simply not enough to make up the difference in reforms and current fees. While there was ample irritation and disappointment, few ideas were put forth as what to do to counter this constant pattern of tuition going up each and every year.

I couldn’t help but relate to these articles as I am a graduate of The University of Detroit-Mercy and also Eastern Michigan University. I moaned and groaned in the years of 1985-1991 when I was in both schools obtaining my degrees. I thought costs were growing wildly back then, but the numbers these days border on astronomical.  By the time I hit my third year in college, all aid less student loans dried up. I remember vividly being told that since I made 10K a year working two part time jobs and my parents made 25-30K a year combined, we were considered “well off” so, I wasn’t eligible for aid any longer. Citibank was kind enough to offer me a small student loan of $2,500 at 10% interest and then they welcomed me doing a cash advance on my credit card for an additional $5,000 at 18% interest for the rest of my bill that year. I appreciated their flexibility and generosity in robbing me blind when no one else would.  It took me over a decade to pay back over $35,000 in debt. I did it, every last rotten, stinking dime (along with employing a personal therapist to help me get over my bitterness of the whole experience :-).  35K seemed like a large amount of money back then, but appears to be nothing compared to the numbers I have been hearing for this generation of students in school now.

I feel that we have all fallen prey to the false belief that becoming a college graduate is a must. No bachelors degree, you are nothing! No masters degree, you are nothing! No PhD, no zoup for you!   The real deal is you simply go in debt and have no security or guaranty for the journey you feel pressured to take.  What other choices do we make in life at such an early age where we are told;

1)  soon as you graduate from high school make a major life career decision,

2)  fork out $50,000 or more to pay for school (via student aid, scholarships, cash advances on credit cards,  family assistance if you can get it, student loans and in between jobs),

3)  spend 4 to 6 years in an isolated classroom being taught only specific information that certain professors with set agendas want you to learn (so much for well rounded learning),

4)  graduate on time if you are dedicated, smart and organized,

5) and then walk out into a world that has not prepared you for an empty piece of paper, enormous debt and no guaranteed job or career. It appears congratulations are in order college grad!

As one of the articles on www.rightmichigan.com noted, most institutions of higher learning are dealing with increased student entry and graduation numbers not reduced enrollment.  So, what gives?  How angry are all these students – both undergraduate and graduate - if all they do is get upset, yet they still fork over the dough? Or worse, has everyone bought the concept that success in the modern world is available to only those with a college education?  Sure, there are some fields that continuing education is a must. You simply cannot walk into the work world and become a doctor, lawyer, engineer, etc, without some form of higher education. The reality is most other fields, on the job training could prove wonders. But, that isn’t done much any longer.  Employers no longer want to train someone who might leave in a short amount of time or not work out altogether and thus, they have wasted money, time and benefits for nothing. Workers  don’t want traditional blue collar style jobs anymore as they’re simply not “the ones to brag about”.   

Frankly, the whole "business" of college and university education is a bit distasteful  these days. They deny they run themselves like a business. They say they are not there to increase professor profiles. They are not there to build monster alumni programs for the status of the college.  They are not there to create national athletic buildings, teams and fan followings. They are not there to make money. They are simply there to educate the kids of today to be the brilliant workers of tomorrow. Hmmm…right.

My take is that until parents, students and everyone else starts making their voice truly heard, this incredible escalation of costs is going to keep going on and on and on. Regardless of how much money the state and local parties pay out to the schools, it will never be enough. The schools will always say they are in a deficit mode. Parents are actually starting to take out home equity loans to foot their kids college bills. Parents are dipping into their 401K, pension and savings accounts to pay for their kids college bills which could harm their future retirement plans. Parents are getting second and third jobs to help their kids pay their college bills.   Some kids are working to help put themselves through school (like I did), but still not enough. If kids had to work to foot their entire bill themselves, things would change overnight. Guaranteed!

Don’t forget, communities like Grand Rapids keep going to the ballet box during voting season to get that all important millage increase to keep the schools piggy bank full.  If they don’t get the vote they want the first time, well  try, try again. 

Is the sky now the limit?

When will people say no more? 

Until we all start demanding more in return for our hard earned money, we aren't going to see a change. Even if someone is lucky enough to get grants and scholarships instead of forking out direct cash, credit cards or taking out direct loans…we all pay the bill in the long run one way or another. What you got as a grant or scholarship, people like I paid in direct expenses out of my own pocket. Or citizens in the community paid via increased millage rates. Nothing is free. Nothing. 

I would like to suggest controversial ideas such as the following to fix the current college and university tuition increase problem:

Start boycotting schools that increase tuition beyond the cost of inflation.

Start boycotting schools that do not do needed reforms and shave off waste to their own internal administrative, building and operating programs.

Start boycotting schools that do not contain costs and watch their spending - in terms of educator & administrative salaries, material costs, building booms, etc.

Start boycotting schools who do not provide guaranteed job assistance and job placement at the end of a 4 or 6 year program.

Start boycotting schools that do not show a top level placement record of recent graduates.

If these colleges and universities want to act like a big business, even if they deny they are, then let’s start holding them to successful business principals. That means watching the bottom line dollar (keeping costs in line with inflation and no more), making sure they meet the customers demands (quality surveys on teachers, administrators, books, class content, etc.), showing success in their product line(that students are getting jobs in their fields) and so on. Continuing to pay colleges and universities for minimal to poor production is a bad business practice and it shows.  You wouldn’t reward a failing business in the real world. Why reward a failing college or university when the product they produce isn't working - you (that is assuming that a student is putting 100% of their time and effort toward their major/minor properly, graduating on time and still can't make do with the degree they have earned).

We have all bought the notion hook, line and sinker that if you don’t get a college degree these days – you are big, fat zero. You can’t possibly amount to anything.  It's sad that high school counselors, teachers aids and adults themselves advise students that they must attend a college or university else they will end up unmarketable and unwanted in the work world.  It’s too easy to forget or deny that some of the biggest inventors and small business people began with minor beginnings. Beginnings that DID NOT include a college degree. Who knows what you might be able to accomplish if you take hard work, determination and dedication to a discipline other than a college or university.  Everyone should not have to pay these institutions the sun, moon and the stars to "help" make a dream happen. We should all consider taking our current money, time and effort and consider becoming the next great inventor, a small business owner, joining a military branch of service for the benefit of God, country and family, attending a technical or vocational school for a trade skill, putting years in a job and gaining experience on site and working our way up in a company the old fashioned way and so on. The key would be suggesting and supporting these alternatives instead of just frowning upon them. 

As these simple ideas and suggestions show, it's possible to avoid breaking the bank when it comes to continuing education.  We simply have forgotten how.

Regards,

Bridget Dupont-Tingley
Editor, The Local Area Watch

Comments

[B Post]

Thanks for the article Bridget. The increases in tuition this year are outright obscene. One alternative to outright boycotting is an idea that may also seem radical at first: outsource your education. Having recently married a Philippino woman and seeing her country has opened my mind to other possibilities. College education in the Philippines is top quality, taught in English, and the people there love Americans. A year of college costs about $1200, and you could double that amount for room and board and live very well, with maid service rolled in to boot. Even with two $1500 round trip plane tickets per year to come home you're still way ahead of univesity tuition here. If the educational institutions won't play ball here and act responsibly they could be doomed to repeat the mistakes of the manufacturing community in thinking that the public has no alternatives.

A comment on the upcoming GRCC millage request too. I get absolutely inflamed hearing them preach day after day in the GR Press (either directly in articles or through their surrogates in the Public Pulse) that they need more money and that they haven't had an increase in all these many years. Taxpayers should remember this: every year that the value of your home goes up, so does GRCC's funding. In fact, because most of our homes have increase in market value faster than the taxable value, if you've been in your home for many years, your market value can go down while your taxes keep climbing. So GRCC has a built-in funding inicrease for many years to come. And on top of that increase, every new piece of real estate built will also add to GRCC's funding increase every year, all without raising their millage one bit. So why they insist that they cannot live with the increases they've been getting every year is beyond me. I urge readers of the Local Area Watch to help get this message out, or our tax bills will continue to escalate. I'm convinced that we can never pay enough taxes to make these people happy.

[Bridget Dupont-Tingley, Editor - L.A.W.]

Hello B Post,

Your suggestion for "outsourcing education" is an interesting thought.

Like your spouse, if you were to come from such a host country and could take advantage of state sponsored benefits like cheap post secondary education such as the Phillipines offers, and once you are done you could relocate to the U.S. to obtain a top job, well more power to you!

I like your outside of the box thinking on this one, but the reality is we shouldn't have to go to another country to get something like further education here. Just like our health care system and retirement system, we can have these things, we just need to re-work them for a capitistic economy not a socialistic economy. We can have the best of everything, we just need to re-organize how it's provided, what we each pay, what our level of benefits will be, how we shop for these benefits just like we do other retail style items and so forth (and no, everyone is not going to be equal and that's just fine). We can have education, retirement and health care without the government having to be big brother on this issue for us. Just like our current health care issues and SS issues, we don't have to destroy the current system for the small percentage that falls outside the norm. Instead, opening up the the market can help solve the issue. People need to make smart choices in what they do in their lives and how they spend their money. The government shouldn't be doing it for people just because they aren't doing it for themselves.

As to your comment on the GRCC future milleage vote and possible tax increase...Bill wrote an article yesterday on that issue. We have been against the second vote that GRCC is planning, all in the attempts to get that increase that was missed the first time. See Bill's article for more on this issue. You are correct B Post that the college keeps getting increases as new buisnesses come to the area, new workers hit the payrolls and each time the city values houses at a higher level for tax purposes - each of these changes puts money into the account of GRCC - they don't like to talk about that, but it is happening. Excellent point.

I shook my head and rolled my eyes with exasperation the other night while watching the local p.m. news casts. The major stations couldn't spare even a second to profile the mayor's race and the recent debates around town on the city issues, BUT they found plenty of time to interview the President of GRCC and a handful of students who all boo-hooed that if they don't get the milleage increase, it will be a sad day indeed for all of them. Get out the box of tissues, you're going to need it, sniff, sniff. If the milleage fails, it's all our fault. That includes you B. Post. The big, bad taxpayers who won't cough up a few more dollars each year for the good of the county's premier community college. Guilt induced phrases were stressed such as:

The college is pulling in so many students and classrooms are to the breaking point, they need to grow or else. They have started turning students away by the thousands (that's what the President Juan Olivarez said - roughly 2,000 last year and about 1,100 this year alone),

It was explained over and over again that this milleage is ONLY a paultry $24.00 per $100,000 of a home's value to local propery owners, that's a drop in the bucket, we shouldn't be astonished by such a small increase,

It's a college that is affordable, we shouldn't reverse that trend by making them increase student costs if the milleage doesn't pass again,

Students of lowers incomes can go there and get an afforable education - if the milleage fails it could mean fewer students attending of all economic classes

And on and on and on.

Why is it MY responsiblity and your responsiblity to foot a college kids bill? I may have a tough position on this, but when I went to school, I found a way to get scholarships, grants, student loans and then, if a gap was still left, I high tailed it to a local employer and got anywhere between 1-3 part time jobs over my six years in college. A job paid the difference, I didn't expect the taxpayers to do that for me. It was tough and it was hard, but it was required if I wanted this additional education on my resume. My gain should not be someone else's financial loss. If students can't find money for further schooling, they should hold off until they can. Schools need to tighten their financial belts and tighten their admission requirements as well (they refuse to do this as they want to be flooded with students so, they can get more money from the taxpayer, they can obtain a higher profile and can grow, grow, grow those college campuses, buildings and teacher's salaries & benefits to unheard of levels).

Bill said it so well in his piece that if our state's K-12 education was improved and top notch, kids wouldn't have to be learning in community colleges and their first 1-2 years in general colleges what they should have learned years ago. These additional costs put a tremendous stress on an already heavily taxed citizen base. If we had a world class K-12 education system in Michigan, college & universities would be irrelevant expect for very specialized fields and for serious continuing education where further expertise is needed. The way it used to be and the way it should be again today.

I go back to my original position. Until people start boycotting schools - they are doing to do what they want, when they want and the sky is the limit. Even if it means making voters go to the voting booth again and again and again in the hopes they get that "one" extra vote that takes them over the top.

Regards,

[Chetly Zarko]

Great points. Thanks for referencing my work. The original is linked on my name here (although you got the cross-post at RightMichigan, the detailed statistical stuff is at my personal website).

It won't stop until we change the system. They blame Bishop and the legislature for "cutting" their budgets (the legislature has increased their budgets, but not by what they "expected"), but what difference does it make if you pay for it in tuition, or taxes. If we deny them free reign on the tax input (legislative gifts) - I propose portable funding that follows the student if there is to be any legislative grant at all, just like K-12, which would make universities compete for students - and the market exerts at least some pressure against tuition hikes, then they will be forced to making spending more efficient.

[Bridget Dupont-Tingley, Editor - L.A.W.]

Hello Chetly,

You're welcome. Glad we could reference your article as it was a timely one on RM.

Portable funding is a good idea, second only to charter schools. Anything that allows kids to go where the teachers are top, the schools are top and they get the most out of their educational dollars I'm all for. Research is clear, just because a school keeps getting more and more money does not mean it is a good school district. Having kids take their money/vouchers to schools that get the job done might be a big enough scare tactic to clean up the system. Doubt the legislators will do it, they'll be pressured too much by the teachers and their unions, but it's still a good idea!

Thanks for your solid feedback.

Regards,