More Students Subsidize Classmates' Tuition

Parent Cafe
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<p>From today’s Wall Street Journal:</p>

<p>Well-off students at private schools have long subsidized poorer classmates. But as states grapple with the rising cost of higher education, middle-income students at public colleges in a dozen states now pay a growing share of their tuition to aid those lower on the economic ladder.</p>

<p>The student subsidies, which are distributed based on need, don’t show up on most tuition bills. But in eight years they have climbed 174% in real dollars at a dozen flagship state universities surveyed by The Wall Street Journal. </p>

<p>During the 2012-13 academic year, students at these schools transferred $512,401,435 to less well-off classmates, up from $186,960,962, in inflation-adjusted figures, in the 2005-06 school year.</p>

<p>[More</a> Students Subsidize Classmates’ Tuition - WSJ.com](<a href=“http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424127887324049504578545884011480020]More”>http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424127887324049504578545884011480020)</p>

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<p>I can’t read the article but are they saying that the full pay students pay MORE than the cost of their education in tuition? At a public college? Surely the tax payers who subsidize public education at all levels are the ones doing the equalizing. </p>

<p>Or, is it implying that every dollar more that student A pays is going to student B who is on financial aid? It is more likely that both of them are being subsidized. How often do you hear (usually during fund raising drives) that tuition does not cover the full cost of education.</p>

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<p>

Not in our state. The state flagship receives a whopping 6 or 10% of its total operating budget from the state (depending on weather you include the hospital). The funding has dropped so drastically in the last decade the university now has greater autonomy from the state. So, while a public school, it’s more ‘state affiliated’.</p>

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<p>no surprise in California…indeed, the UC’s were up-front about taking one-third of every dollar of tuition increase and plowing in back into financial aid for the poor.</p>