Students at Colorado’s four-year public colleges and universities saw the largest percentage increase in tuition and fees in the United States this year, a report released Tuesday showed.
Between 2004-05 and 2005-06, tuition and fees increased an average of 17 percent in Colorado, according to a study by the College Board.
But Colorado students still pay $1,231 less a year in tuition and fees than the national average of $5,491, according to the study.
With average tuition and fees of $4,260, Colorado ranked 34th among states. Pennsylvania ranked highest with $8,410, and Florida ranked lowest among states at $3,100 in tuition and fees.
Most experts attribute the overall percentage increase to a nearly 28 percent tuition hike by the University of Colorado – the state’s largest school – for most in-state undergraduates this year, and to the fact that several public schools went to enterprise status, allowing them to raise tuition.
“We saw increases in the tuition, and we know who is above that average,” said Jason Hopfer, spokesman for the Colorado Commission on Higher Education, referring to CU.
This is the first year that the College Board has done a state- by-state breakdown of tuition and fees, and it is likely that the jump is an anomaly.
Along with CU’s large increase, many of the state’s four- year public schools went to enterprise status, which allowed them to raise tuition significantly for the first time.
Enterprise status allows schools to raise tuition without it counting under the revenue caps set by the state constitution’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights.
Michele McKinney, spokeswoman for the CU system, said that since it is a one-year study, it does not show the small increases the state schools had in previous years.
Colorado ranked first in fee- and-tuition increases in the 50 states at 17 percent, but the territory of Puerto Rico saw an 18.5 percent increase.
Kentucky had a 13.8 percent increase, and the reason seems similar to Colorado’s. “There’s been a corresponding drop in state support,” said Joe McCormick, executive director of the Kentucky Higher Education Assistance Authority, which administers financial aid in the state. “When the state gives you less money, you have to have money to operate.”
A student representative faulted CU and the state for the tuition increase.
“I am not surprised that Colorado is No. 1,” Jeremy Jimenez, one of CU-Boulder’s student- body presidents, wrote in an e-mail exchange. “This study should not only put CU on notice but the state.”
Study organizers said that either financial aid needs to be increased or tuition kept in check to ensure that students can attend college.
“In the coming years, our country cannot afford to have segments of our population left out of higher education,” said Gaston Caperton, president of the College Board, a nonprofit group of schools and education organizations.
Staff writer Arthur Kane can be reached at 303-820-1626 or akane@denverpost.com.
