News > September 23, 2004

By Sara Bivin

Contributing Reporter

North Carolina public and private universities received a grade of “D” in affordability for the average family in a study released Sept. 15.

Every two years for the past decade the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education releases “The National Report Card on Higher Education.” In the report each state is graded in five different categories: preparation, participation, affordability, completion and benefits.

In 2000 North Carolina received an “A” in affordability, plummeted to a “C” in 2002 and hit bottom with a “D” this year.  According to the report, “North Carolina has lost ground in providing students and families with an affordable higher education.” 

In North Carolina, “net college costs for low and middle-income students to attend public four-year colleges and universities represent about a third of their annual family income. Net college costs equal tuition, room and board minus financial aid,” according to the report.

Donald Frey, a professor of economics and coordinator of urban studies,  said, “Private tuitions have long been rising, although this increase has only been true of public schools more recently,” Frey turns to the state of the economy as a large factor in the rising prices of schools. 

“The change in the ranking of North Carolina, I think, is mainly due to the recent increases in public-university tuitions and fees,” Frey said. “I think this is due mainly to the effect of the economic recession on the ability of the state government to fund the public universities. State governments were all hit hard by the recession of 2001 and the slow recovery. Thus, the only way for state colleges to raise funds has been through higher tuitions and charges.”

The implications for students from middle and low-income families are grave, experts say.  According to Mary Beth Marklein of USA Today , “At the nation’s 146 most selective colleges, only 3% of students come from the lowest socioeconomic quarter,” while “74% come from the top quarter.”

The maximum federal Pell Grant offset 84% of the cost for a public university thirty years ago.  Today it covers less than half.

“Since there has been a relative increase in cost, it will obviously force lower-income students to stretch out their educations as they do more part time work,” Frey said. “This is not good for them.” 

In response to many of these statistics, universities across the nation including Brown, Princeton, the University of Virginia and Harvard are moving to grant-based financial aid instead of loans for students in the lowest economic brackets. Grants do not have to be repaid upon graduation but unlike scholarships are not based upon merit.

“The high-income parents, and that includes most Wake Forest parents, already have their solution: the Bush tax cuts can be used to pay tuition,” Frey said.  As for middle- and low-income students he said that “greater state subsidies to the public institutions as the economy recovers would help the middle-class and the poorer as well. This could be compensated for by some federal assistance to the states.”

The study graded affordability by looking at the ability of families to afford both public and private four-year institutions as well as the amount each state invests in need-based financial aid. The burden of attending a private university in the current economy does not go unnoticed by students or their families.

“I already saw two of my brothers go through four years of college and they are still dealing with how to finance their educations, something I’m not looking forward to,” freshman Seth Ludwick said.

Old Gold & Black reporter Chris D’Amato contributed to this article.