Liam Evans works two jobs and relies on financial aid to afford her tuition at the Community College of Baltimore County in Catonsville.
“I’m going to have to pay more?” said the 18-year-old freshman.
Yes, say officials at state community colleges. Tuition increases are likely coming.
It is the only way to offset a proposed funding freeze and combat $310 million in cuts to local aid, said Clay Whitlow, executive director of the Maryland Association of Community Colleges.
“We are really left with no choice,” he said.
According to the fiscal 2010 budget proposal released last week, Gov. Martin O’Malley will not increase funding for community colleges and will cut aid to counties to close a $1.9 billion budget shortfall.
But while students at community colleges scramble to come up with an average of $3 to $9 more per credit hour, in-state students at four-year schools will have their tuition frozen for a fourth straight year.
Cuts in funding are particularly hard on community colleges because they rely on state and county funds for about 58 percent of their revenue, said Whitlow, adding student tuition and fees account for the balance.
He said it is not easy to ask students to pay more, especially since community colleges tend to have more low-income students than universities.
Alberto Fernandez, a freshman at Howard Community College, said an increase in tuition may discourage people from going to college, especially if they are already struggling to pay tuition.
“It’s just going to turn people away from wanting to study and go to school,” he said.
House Speaker Michael Busch, D-Anne Arundel, agrees that a tuition increase may unfairly affect less affluent students.
“We have 120,000 Marylanders attend community colleges,” he said. “Many of them can’t afford four-year colleges … I think it’s important for us to try to do everything we can to limit the increase in tuition at the community college level.”
But as student enrollment continues to grow, while school funding does not, limiting tuition increases will be difficult, said Harford Community College President Jim LaCalle.
He said he has no choice but to “seriously” consider raising tuition by $3 per credit hour, bringing the cost of an hour to $80. He is not alone.
Sandra Kurtinitis, president of the Community College of Baltimore County in Essex, said there will be “a modest tuition increase across the college.”
