Whenever tuition increases, we tend to get out our torches and pitchforks and aim them towards the university's administration and the CU Regents, but maybe it's time to aim those torches and pitchforks at the people that are really responsible.
In the past 20 years, Colorado has been cutting higher education at a drastic rate. Below are a couple graphs from a recent report called "Cuts to higher ed budget mean families will pay more" that was published by The Bell Policy Center.
In a national comparison,
Unfortunately, as the State share continues to decline, tuition rates have to increase in order to bridge the gap.
As The Bell Policy Center's Plain Talk brief explains, higher education continues to be cut in Colorado due to the limitations of the state General Fund of which much is committed legally to other areas of spending such as K-12 education, Medicaid and funding correctional facilities.
Eventually, if nothing changes, state funding for higher education may diminish altogether.
Below are some graphic representations of how state cuts in higher education funding have impacted the CU system.
Let's start with CU's current budget.
As you can see, the state currently funds only 5.7% of CU's budget. Here is a representation of how that % has changed over the past 10 years.
The pie chart below explains how the revenue is split up.
Here is more historical information about Colorado's cuts to higher education.
Even through everything, CU has worked hard to keep costs low for students.
While the state has been cutting funding and leaving students scrambling to find a way to pay for their education, CU has been working hard to take some of the burden off students by increasing institutional aid by over $80 million.
It looks to me like the university administration and the Regents have been working tirelessly for us.
Let's turn our torches and pitchforks in the right direction.
Share your story with local and state officials.
Spread the word about this major crisis in higher education funding.
And, join hundreds of alumni and supporters by becoming a CU Advocate.
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