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Raising tuition in the Bayou State
ACTA recently had the pleasure of touching base with Louisiana policymakers and submitting testimony to the state's Postsecondary Education Review Commission concerning higher education quality and affordability. Shortly thereafter, the Commission recommended that the Louisiana State Legislature relinquish its authority to set tuition for the state's public colleges and universities. According to this news report, if the Legislature approves this recommendation, tuition and fees at Louisiana State University could rise nearly 25 percent, and there could be increases of almost 60 percent at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
This response to the governor's call to increase cost efficiency and streamline budgets ignores a very real problem that ACTA highlighted in our testimony -- high administrative expenditures relative to instructional spending. According to data supplied to the U.S. Department of Education, between 2002 and 2007, the Louisiana State University System increased its instructional expenditures by 63 percent, but administrative spending went up over 87 percent. During that same period, instructional spending at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette went up 21 percent, while administrative spending increased by 41 percent. The rapidity with which administrative costs are increasing is a significant factor in spiraling college costs -- and to raise tuition without addressing it is little more than applying a flimsy band-aid to the wound.
Posted by Anne D. Neal on January 04, 2010 at January 4, 2010 04:49 PM
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