Ga. still grappling with quandary of college costs

The state still has not settled the pivotal question of whether education is a public or private good.

Georgia still has not settled a pivotal question in a 21st century economy driven by knowledge and innovation: Is education a public or private good?

Many European nations answered that question years ago, decreeing education a public benefit and providing free college to their citizens. (The “free” is relative as taxpayers pick up tab.) But European countries send fewer students to four-year colleges than the United States, where both star and struggling high school seniors can find a bevy of colleges willing to accept them.

Countries offering free college don’t necessarily end up with the most educated workforces, either. That distinction goes to South Korea, Canada and Japan, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and students in all three countries pay for public universities. Like their American peers, Canadian students also take on debt to go to college, estimated by a Canadian University Survey Consortium survey to average $26,819.

In Georgia, typical student debt

is about $27,754, according to an annual report released in October by the Project on Student Debt at the Institute for College Access and Success. Georgia ranked 24th nationally, with 61 percent of students shouldering some debt.

Student debt loads in the state shot up 73 percent between 2004 and 2014, one of the nation’s largest jumps. A new audit and report by the state Department of Audits and Accounts Performance Audit Division suggests why.

The audit of the University System of Georgia found the average cost of college attendance increased 77 percent, from $8,361 to $14,791 per year, between 2006 and 2015. Much of the increase owes to slashes to higher education funding and reductions to the HOPE Scholarship by the Legislature.

The audit found: “Between fiscal years 2006 and 2015, state appropriations failed to keep pace with enrollment, which effectively resulted in a 15 percent decrease (or a $1,288 per full-time-enrolled student decrease) in USG funding. To offset this decrease, USG increased tuition and instituted a special institutional fee, which did not fully offset the loss in state appropriations when considering inflation. Increases in the average tuition rate (including the special institutional fee) ranged from 86 percent at USG’s state colleges to 55 percent at its comprehensive universities over the 10-year period.”

While lawmakers contend the merit-based HOPE Scholarship bolsters college affordability, the amount of the award has eroded, paying about 71 percent of the tuition at Georgia Tech, according to the audit. Nor does HOPE cover room and board or books and fees, both of which have risen dramatically. The audit found housing expenses have increased 56 percent and dining expenses 60 percent, both more than double the inflation rate.

The audit cites the impact of rising fees on students, including athletic fees. With the exception of the University of Georgia and Bainbridge State College, the audit said all public campuses have either added a new athletic fee or hiked existing ones in the past 10 years. The University System also imposed a mandatory, systemwide general-purpose student fee to compensate for wounding state cuts.

“We estimate that in fiscal year 2016 students funded $61.4 million in USG costs that would have been previously covered by the HOPE scholarship program had the Board of Regents increased tuition rather than create the new Special Institutional Fee. This has increased net cost of attendance by an average of $580 per year,” states the audit.

The General Assembly is likely to seize upon the audit’s finding that the cost of attending a public college in Georgia remains lower than in other states. But any comparisons have to acknowledge the greater percentage of financially fragile families. Only six states surpass Georgia in the proportion of residents living below the poverty level, according to 2014 and 2015 U.S. Census data.

Georgia has 18.3 percent of its population below the poverty line, sharing 7th place with West Virginia and Tennessee. The Census poverty threshold is $15,379 for a family of two and $24,230 for a family of four, which translates into $296 and $466 a week, before taxes.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo last week proposed free tuition for middle- and low-income New Yorkers, saying, “We have 7.95 million jobs in the state today, more jobs than have ever existed in the history of the state of New York. That is the good news. The bad news is 70 percent of those jobs require a college education, and it is incredibly hard and getting harder to get a college education today. The debt is so high it’s like starting a race with an anchor tied to your leg.”

Georgia kids are dragging that anchor, too. If we don’t lift it off them, it will sink not only their economic chances, but the state’s as well.