By Anthony T., Teen Portal Staff Writer
Georgetown University: $49,689; George Washington University: $50,312; Johns Hopkins University: $49,278.
These are the yearly costs of just three schools in the Washington Metropolitan region. Although these private institutions are on the upper-end of the cost spectrum for a college education, they reflect an unfortunate rising trend in rising college attendance costs. This increase coincides with increasingly harder economic times. As money gets harder to find, college endowments shrivel and schools are offsetting costs by raising tuition.
Undergraduate students at Virginia state schools are currently paying an average of 7.3 percent more for tuition and fees than they did last year, according to statistics reported by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV). That means, they are paying some $14,841 (including room and board) for the current academic year, according to SCHEV. And things aren’t getting any better. For next year, George Mason University is forecasting a 10 percent increase while the University of Virginia is expecting a 7 percent increase.
Meanwhile, according to the College Board, the average cost to attend a four-year, private institution (including tuition and room/board) is approximately $32,000, a 6 percent increase from the previous year.
Fortunately, Obama’s administration is planning for educational reforms that could help make college more affordable for most of us. According to Obama’s official website, his administration plans to create a new tax credit and streamline the financial aid application process. The new tax credit, which would be available to “most Americans,” is called the American Opportunity Tax Credit; it is universal and fully-refundable, meaning that the first $4,000 of college tuition would be free, tuition for community college would be completely free and that about two-thirds the tuition costs of the average state university or college would be free. Recipients of the credit would have to complete 100 hours of community service. Obama is also planning to eliminate the federal financial aid application, replacing it with a check-off box on your family’s annual tax return form.
It remains unclear who exactly would qualify for the tax credit program, and we’ll have to wait and see how quickly Obama addresses the college tuition issue as he faces the many problems currently facing the nation (the economy, Iraq, energy issues, etc, etc). And who knows whether Congress will support or water down Obama’s ideas. Realistically, the tuition help may come too late for some of us or may not make such a big dent in any of our costs, but at least Obama’s administration is trying to make it easier for students to pay for college. By introducing these two new reforms, getting a college education could become much more affordable and attainable for all students.
