There’s been a lot of talk lately about the cost of college, particularly in the Presidential race.
And locally, it has just gone up again.
And while the presidential candidates wrangle about college loans, the need for those loans continues to go up.
And here at UT-Tyler, it has happened again.
For a freshman at the University of Houston in 1967, tuition and fees for 15 credit hours were $750 .
That was affordable for a middle class family.
Now at U of H, it’s $9300. But if you only account for inflation, it ought to be $5100.
And at UT Tyler the same phenomenon has occurred.
In 1999, tuition and fees for 15 hours were $3511.
Inflation says, it ought to now be $4834.
It is actually, over $6300. And it’s going higher.
UT regents have approved a 2.1% increase this fall…and another one next fall.
Which can leave students graduating with a mountain of debt.
A lot of this is because the Texas Legislature didn’t want to raise taxes for higher education back in 2003, so they removed the caps on tuition, and colleges were off to the races.
Now parents of public university students are looking at tuition that used to be enough for a private school just a few years ago.