Man, my wife is PISSED!

PA Governor Thomas Corbett (R) has proposed a budget this week that cuts higher education costs for the Commonwealth by more than 25%... and that means our bill for Katey's university education is going up again.

All of our gut reactions here are probably understandable... at $16k a year, Mansfield University is one of the more "affordable" State-schools we can send her to, and we want it to be as easy (meaning cheap) as possible for us.  Knowing that we face the prospect of next year's bill being $20k makes all of us unhappy.

I can't blame her for having that initial reaction... blaming Republicans, I mean.  I wasn't able to rationally defend the position that it isn't the Federal government's "job" to provide an affordable education to all its citizens.  It is only their job to provide the opportunity for that education.  So, I took a few minutes and found out some interesting information that I think all of the Commonwealth's universities will need to ponder in the coming years.

There is a small college in Ohio called Antioch College that was formed more than 160 years ago, and that recently saw its enrollment fall to less than 40 students.  In an effort to correct that glaring issue, as well as increase its endowment and alumni base, it is offering any student that enrolls over the next three years FREE TUITION.  That's right... no tuition costs at all (a savings of $106,000 by their current fee schedule) and all you pay for your degree is housing and board costs.  By Antioch's estimates, they will have a full student compliment by this time next year, and for the next three years, and can then look to build on the endowment and make some much needed improvements to the college.

The Milwaukee School of Engineering is also struggling to get its enrollment up.  It has seen a drop of more than 65% in new student enrollment over the last 10 years, and expects funding from the State of Wisconsin to fall by as much as 40% in the next two years.  In order to increase the student body and grow their endowment, they are offering anyone that graduates with a BA/BS and maintains a strong GPA a zero-tuition Masters degree program.  Basically, a buy-one-get-one free degree program that can save engineering students as much as $80,000 over the course of 6 years.

THIS is the solution to the tuition crisis in this country:  the colleges and universities need to make the product they offer better and/or more affordable to attract students to their campuses.  If more State-directed colleges followed their private counterpart's lead, I think this problem would sort itself out rather quickly.  For example, University of Pennsylvania has an average tuition cost for PA residents of just over $50k per year, making a four year degree a $200k expense.  To keep that big number from growing in the next 5 years, UPenn has opted to freeze all wages, salaries and pension contributions at 2011 levels for four years, insuring that tuition costs wouldn't go up because of staff expenses.

When will the rest of the Commonwealth come to the same point?