CCRI, RIC, & URI Hike Tuitions

When our State NEEDS more college grads, we raise tuitions. Around here, engineers of all sorts are hard-to-find. But tuitions are raised. Don't forget fees also. These can be surprisingly high & mount up fast when paying college costs. And then there is transportation...

RIC is up 10% & CCRI 8.6%. URI is up 6% for tuition AND fees. Pharmacy students (mostly out-of-state) will pay $500 more. RIC is %5,771 in tuition & fees with room & board appx. $8,000. CCRI is slight over $3,000. URI is $8,678 in tuition & fees with room & board at $10,000. These are all in-state costs. And the final kicker- "...the state scholarship program was cut by $2.6 million for the coming academic year."

Now let me delve into my memory banks- $2000 tuition, room & board at a private college for 3 yrs. One yr. at a state college with the $200 tuition waved for a state teachers' scholarship given to anyone who agree to teach in a public school for 2 yrs. 3.5% federally guaranteed loans, $500 in state scholarships, & a federal program to negate loans if you taught in a federally impacted area (like HERE). Jobs in the college, federal summer jobs for students, blah, blah. This was when I lived in Maryland. Yup, a tad different.

Over the past two years, lawmakers have cut state support to the three public colleges by $21.5 million, said Jack Warner, state commissioner of higher education.
Yesterday, he announced the colleges will have to cut another $6.1 million from their budgets, due to personnel cuts in the Department of Administration’s budget that recently came to light, bringing the total cuts to higher education closer to $27 million.

Not good. But why should we treat our state colleges and universities any different than we treat our local public school system?

Thanks to Projo reporter By Jennifer D. Jordan