Tuition

INQUIRER STAFF WRITER Penn State University will raise tuition 4.9 percent for in-state students and 2.9 percent for out-of-state students for the upcoming school year, Penn State President Graham Spanier announced at the Board of Trustees meeting Friday. Last year, the University increased tuition 5.9 and 4.5 percent respectively for in-state and out-of-state students. The meeting is taking place at Penn State Lehigh Valley Campus, according to the Daily Collegian, which is covering the event.

As the government spends increasingly less on student financial aid, many leading colleges and universities are using a greater percentage of tuition revenues for scholarships. Just as tax breaks are given for charitable contributions, this portion of tuition should be tax deductible. Statistics compiled by the Consortium on Financing Higher Education, which does research and analysis for 32 member colleges, show the growing importance of tuition income for supporting scholarships.

Temple University's continued financial problems may force the school to increase tuition by $402 this year, university sources said yesterday. The university's 36-member board of trustees is expected to approve the proposed 9.5 percent increase this afternoon, after it votes to adopt the school's $708 million operating budget, the sources said. Tuition has already been raised by 7 percent for the second summer semester, which begins July 8, according to the sources. The increase will raise next year's tuition from $4,234 to $4,636.

Beginning next fall, Temple University will allow students to pay tuition and dormitory charges in 10 monthly installments each year, with no interest or finance charges other than an annual $40 fee to cover administrative costs. Temple President Peter J. Liacouras said the new program - the Temple University Installment Payment Plan, or TIPP - would provide the school's 31,100 full- and part-time students with "a convenience in budgeting cash flow," rather than direct financial aid. "TIPP is an option that our working students and their parents can use to help pay for an education at Temple," Liacouras said.

Students at Montgomery County Community College will pay an additional $7 per credit hour starting with the college's first summer session in May. The school's board of trustees voted Monday, 11-1, to raise tuition from $50 to $57 per credit hour. Trustee Jean Stefanowicz voted against the proposal. Board members Muriel B. Pancoast, Peter J. Korsan and Delores Rotello were absent. It is the first time the college has raised tuition since 1988, when tuition was increased from $45 to $50 per credit hour.

IT'S NOT NEWS that the cost of a college degree has risen significantly over the last couple of decades. Since 1990, tuition and fees have risen by nearly 225 percent at four-year public colleges and by 154 percent at private four-year colleges. The real story is that tuition growth rates often fluctuate wildly from year to year - which makes it hard for families to plan ahead and budget enough to cover the costs. Last year, students at Villanova faced an unexpected tuition and fee increase that was double the previous year's.

During the war in the Persian Gulf, Goddard Early Learning Centers have cut tuition in half for any family whose mother or father is serving in the gulf. President Joseph A. Scandone said the tuition reduction was to help alleviate additional stress for families. For Sue Donnelly, who is living in Berwyn, the reduced tuition helped make it possible for her 3-year-old son, Jamie, to attend the Malvern school. Donnelly's husband, Pat, was sent to Saudia Arabia on Aug. 29. Donnelly said that she and her family had been living at Hunter Airfield in Stewart, Ga., but that after her husband was activated, she and Jamie returned to the area to live with her father.

Peter Ciotoli is glad to be moving his family back into the area, but he didn't exactly get the welcome he had hoped for from the Downingtown school board. Five years ago, Ciotoli's job with a local environmental consulting firm transferred him to Virginia. Now, that job has transferred him back. As the Ciotoli family awaited completion of a house being built in West Bradford, the only home Ciotoli could find to lease in the interim was in Exton, which lies within the West Chester Area School District.

Camden County College will increase its tuition and fees slightly next school year and make budget cuts of about $1.8 million as its operating budget shrinks because of ever-rising costs and flat government funding. The school's board of trustees approved the budget at its meeting Tuesday night. The tuition and fee increases were adopted in March. Total cost per credit at Camden County College will increase $5 next year to $138 for in-county students, $142 for out-of-county students, and $217 for international students.

TRENTON - The costs of a scandal in the Rutgers University men's basketball program will not be pushed onto students through tuition increases, and the university is trying to come up with a fair formula to allocate state aid among its three campuses, the school's president told lawmakers Monday. President Robert Barchi faced questions on both issues when he appeared with other education officials at a state Senate budget hearing. Senators asked about the financial implications from Mike Rice's firing as basketball coach last month after a video was made public showing the coach pushing and kicking players and using antigay slurs as he berated them during practice.

Mike Gatley knows that most people assume the Cape-Atlantic League is composed of two types of schools: public and non-public. He says that's not even close to a complete picture. "There are just so many moving parts these days," said Gatley, the athletic director at Mainland Regional High School and the Cape-Atlantic League president. "Public, non-public, choice schools, magnet schools, tech schools. People have no idea how complicated it is. " In the old days - say, five years ago - it was easy to classify high school sports programs in South Jersey into those two tight categories.

Mike Gatley knows that most people assume the Cape-Atlantic League is composed of two types of schools: public and non-public. He says that's not even close to a complete picture. "There are just so many moving parts these days," said Gatley, the athletic director at Mainland Regional High School and the Cape-Atlantic League president. "Public, non-public, choice schools, magnet schools, tech schools. People have no idea how complicated it is. " In the old days - say, five years ago - it was easy to classify high school sports programs in South Jersey into those two tight categories.

Burlington County College will increase its per-credit costs by $5 next year, its first increase since the 2010-11 school year. School administrators said it was necessary to accommodate growth. The total cost per credit, $125.50, will still be the lowest in the state, said president David C. Hespe, a former state commissioner of education. The increase will help fund initiatives, Hespe said. "The first thing is increasing the number of full-time faculty members that we have on staff.

Gloucester County College will increase tuition next year, but the two-year school in Sewell still provides a higher education at the lowest per-credit cost in New Jersey, its administrators say. At the same time, the school of about 6,800 full- and part-time students will increase spending on what it sees as essential programs, said president Frederick Keating. "Initiatives such as our Dual Advantage program, which provides guaranteed admission to several four-year institutions," are one of the reasons for increased costs, Keating said in a statement.

State Sen. Lloyd Smucker (R., Lancaster) has introduced a bill that would allow undocumented immigrant youths who complete high school in Pennsylvania to be eligible for in-state tuition rates at state colleges. "This has the potential to expand the pool of skilled workers and prospective job creators," said Smucker, who modeled his legislation on Maryland's Dream Act, which offers subsidized tuition to undocumented youths who were brought to the United States as young children. While Congress has repeatedly rejected a federal Dream Act, a dozen states have adopted some version of the proposal in recent years, Smucker said.

It took the recession to do it, but it looks like America's colleges and universities are finally coming to their senses when it comes to the ever-increasing tuitions they have been charging students. A study by Moody's Investor Service says the demand for four-year college degrees is softening. Stagnant family incomes and poor job prospects in this economy are leading more young people to choose community college, if they choose college at all. Universities are responding to fewer student applications by freezing or reducing tuition and offering more scholarships.

Tobias Peter is a political reporter and news editor at the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger in Cologne, Germany College students in Germany won't be going into debt too deeply for their education any time soon. Consider the mass protests that erupted on campuses when several German state governments called for the end of free tuition. "Education is a human right," said Katharina Marth, a protest organizer who is studying law at the University of Rostock. "It should be free to everybody.

D EAR HARRY: My wife works for a wonderful employer. Her salary is $50,000, but she has wonderful benefits. She gets 11 percent of her salary put into a pension plan and a 50-percent payment for our two children's college tuition. She has the greatest health plan I have ever seen. She is 54 and in good health. She has a $250,000-term life insurance policy to cover us, because the tuition and health plans do not survive her. I would like her to increase her insurance to $500,000. She can get that for approximately what we are now paying for the $250,000, either from her present carrier or another good company.