Higher ed still imperiled
| By Alan Franklin - Dec 6th, 2004 at 11:15 am EST |
It's like a scene near the end of a movie, where everybody's celebrating, but there's still a danger (think 'Fat Bastard' at the end of the second Austin Powers):
Therein lies the rub, and confusion over this runs rampant on college campuses --
Here's the thing -- Governor Owens is 100% clueless on the actual effect of these vouchers, as he indicated late last June:
Owens' misinformation reveals an underlying, fundamental lack of understanding of what these funding decisions mean to students. But those students won't be so confused when they open their tuition bills this fall. And none of his numbers are correct:
Time for those last-minute movie heroics...or maybe the first thing on the new legislature's agenda?
In 2000, an entering in-state freshman at a public university in Colorado could expect to pay tuition and fees totaling approximately $2,300 for the academic year. The price has steadily increased at the University of Colorado over the last four years, reaching about $3,000 this past fall.
But everything is going to change starting in the fall of 2005. Earlier this year, lawmakers passed a voucher plan, which will provide funds directly to students instead of colleges to pay for tuition. The College Opportunity Fund will give recent high school graduates vouchers for $2,400 that can be put toward tuition at any public junior college, state college, or four-year university in the state.
Sounds like a great deal.
However, students won't really know if they'll come out ahead until the spring or summer of 2005 when new tuition and fee rates are announced...
"I'm concerned some of the students believe it is a $ 2,400 reduction in their bill," said Pam Shockley-Zalabak, chancellor of the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs, who supports the voucher. "In fact, the tuition they pay will be the same. It doesn't make college less expensive; it is just a different funding mechanism."
According to Governor Bill Owens (R), the new system is better because it puts money directly into the hands of students...
In a speech Wednesday to about 200 educators and college administrators gathered in Denver for the Summit on Accountability and Performance, Owens spoke about Colorado's first-in- the-nation tuition voucher bill.
...Owens told the audience that the stipend means that any student who wants to attend community college in Colorado will be able to do so "essentially free."
"When that youngster finishes high school and is told he has a credit of $2,800, $2,700, $3,000 available, and that will allow you to go to a community college essentially for free, that is going to result, I believe, in some of the most affordable institutions in Colorado, and it's also going to let some of these students for the first time really understand that they can go to college without significant financial resources - perhaps with no financial resources."
But as it turns out, that's not true...
In fact, some uncertainty exists about whether Colorado can manage $2,400 vouchers or whether the number will drop to $1,600.
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