Who’s Paying the Real Cost of Registration?
Most students wince at paying $46 per credit at City College
of San Francisco but compared to New York State’s $165 per credit, California
community colleges is among the best deals in American higher
education
A more realistic per unit price is a private college where
fees more closely reflect the actual cost of running a college. A typical private college is our neighbor the
University of San Francisco, a private Jesuit university, charging $1,415 per credit!
($39,840 Annual tuition). Their charges reflects school salaries, facilities, utilities, maintenance,
insurance, public safety, and all the costs associated with a large
organization. How does CCSF and all the
California community colleges get away with $46?
The California tax payer makes up the $1,369 difference and
has been ever since 1960 when the California legislature created The MasterPlan for Higher Education for the community college, California State
University, and University of California system. The goal was to train and educate as many
Californians to be productive citizens as possible. The resulting 1960’s-forward California
economic boom has strong ties to our home grown highly educated workforce.
In Spring 2010 CCSF students paid $26 per credit (compared
to $11 in Spring 2003!) but due to California’s budget problems made worse by
the 2007 Great Recession fees jumped to $46 by Fall 2012. Forgotten is the 2007
fee drop to $20. My hope is as
California’s economy improves and tax revenues return, fees again will drop.
Californians must remind Sacramento in future budget planning
to restore funding for higher education and bring down costs. I don’t know if we’ll ever see $11 per credit
but we can do better than $46!
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