Higher tuitions this fall at Washington-area universities reflect a nationwide trend, but remain higher than the average, according to a Wednesday report by the U.S. Department of Education.
In-state tuition and fees at public universities in the United States averaged about $6,400 in the 2009-10 school year, up about 8 percent from $5,900 in 2007-08, according to the report. It did not analyze data for the starting school year.
Plenty of local families, though, already have.
Students preparing for the start of classes at the University of Maryland will face a relatively small 4.5 percent tuition and fee increase, to $8,400 for residents, up from about $8,100 for the past four years.
At George Mason University, an 8 percent increase will bring in-state tuition and fees to $8,700. And at the University of Virginia, students will pay 10 percent more than last year, bringing costs to $10,600.
According to the Department of Education, tuition and fees at private colleges nationwide rose about 7 percent to $21,300 in 2009-10, up from $20,000 in 2007-08. Four-year, for-profit universities saw a 5 percent increase to about $15,700 as their share of students continued to rise, as well.
“There’s been tremendous growth in the for-profit sector, in part because the biggest companies are publicly traded and the way Wall Street measures their success is by their growth,” said Stephen Burd, editor of the blog Higher Ed Watch at the New America Foundation.
Burd said the schools openly market to lower-income and nontraditional students, with a message of serving the underserved. At the same time, their students often take on far more debt than they would at community colleges, which often have a similar stated mission.
For-profits “admit that they set their tuition based on the maximum amount of federal aid that students can get,” Burd said.
At the same time, educators worry that rising prices at four-year public universities are crowding out working- and middle-class students for whom the schools were designed.
Declining state subsidies are causing the schools to admit more high-paying out-of-state and international students to boost revenue, Burd said.
“Low-income students have access to more financial aid, and Pell Grants, and some institutional aid. But the working class is really being shut out,” he said.
