Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, September 29, 1995 TAG: 9509290080
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
``We are turning into more of an education class structure,'' Donald M. Stewart, president of the College Board, the national testing and placement organization, said at a news briefing.
Noting that college tuition costs rose an average of 4 percent to 6 percent this year, experts said the trend is disturbing because an increasingly competitive workplace is placing a higher premium on degrees from these institutions.
As an example, Kermit Daniel, an assistant professor of public policy management at the University of Pennsylvania, said at an Education Department briefing Thursday that graduates from the top 5 percent of colleges and universities earn about $4,000 more in the year after graduation than those from average universities.
While private schools have always been most accessible to the affluent, middle- and low-income students traditionally have been able to afford these schools because of more generous federal and state grants and school scholarships. In addition, part-time jobs were able to cover a larger proportion of college costs in the past.
Although it's too early to track this phenomenon statistically, Stewart said the steep rise in college costs, combined with declining state and federal funding for education and a sharp increase in student debt is creating a disastrous domino effect.
The result is that only children from the richest families will be able to attend the top private universities. Many in middle-class families will be priced out of that range and will have to turn to less expensive state universities.
Meanwhile, for some children in lower-income families, the only option may be community colleges, and for the poorest of children, college may not be a possibility at all.
This year at private four-year institutions, students are paying an average of $12,432 in tuition and fees, an increase of $713 over last year, according to a College Board study being released today.
At public four-year colleges, tuition and fees rose an average $155, to $2,860. Students paid $1,387 at public community colleges, a $77 increase.
In addition, room and board cost between $4,000 and $5,000 a year, up 2 to 4 percent in the past year.
``All but the wealthiest families already have a very difficult time paying for college, and when you get to the lowest income families, it could become impossible,'' said Kathleen Brouder, the College Board's information director.
That prospect is worrying educators throughout the country.
``This could hurt the nation as a whole,'' Alan Stonecipher, a spokesman for Florida's state university system, said in an interview. ``As resources get squeezed, we could end up losing some young people who could have made some important contributions to our society.''
Paul-Albert Emoungh, a professor of education at Howard University, said the hardest hit are likely to be poor, minority students.
``They have the fewest resources, so they will be the first to be squeezed,'' he said in an interview.
There is little doubt that a college education is becoming a requirement for desirable jobs today.
``What the world requires to make a decent living has changed dramatically over the past 20 years,'' said Arnold Packer, senior fellow at the Johns Hopkins University Institute for Policy Studies, explaining that students must acquire more sophisticated technological and communication skills to meet the increasing demands of the work place.
The payoff for that investment is worthwhile.
According to 1994 figures from the U.S. Census Bureau, a college graduate with a bachelor's degree had an average annual income of $32,629, compared to $18,737 for a high school graduate.
Those with a law or medical degree can expect to earn $74,560.
by CNB