June 17, 2010 10:44 PM UTC

CSU now providing free higher education to lower income families

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• by: bjwilson83

(This is my first attempt at a diary, hope I get it right!)

From an email from Tony Frank, President of CSU:

So today, after more than a month of intensive

analysis and discussions with the leadership of our employee groups,

students, and our governing board, we are prepared to announce

Colorado State University’s Commitment to Colorado.

* Undergraduate students whose families make less than $57,000 a

year (the median family income in Colorado) will not pay more than

half of our standard tuition rate.

* Students from lower-income (Pell eligible) families will not pay

tuition or general fees to attend CSU.

This is an interesting concept that could help make Colorado competitive with Wyoming. Ironically, despite Wyoming’s conservative bent, so few people live there that the state provides higher education for residents at a substantially reduced cost.

The question of course is how this will be paid for, especially given CSU’s recent budget cutbacks. Amazingly, Frank claims that even with federal stimulus funds running out at the end of the year, the budget will be balanced, due to a combination of administrative cuts, salary freezes, and private cash raised through the Campaign for Colorado State. Tony Frank has many policies I disagree with (for example spending money on an office of diversity when minority graduation rates are identical to the overall graduation rate), but this is one thing he got right. The federal government could learn a lot from Frank about balancing a budget.

The new program providing free and reduced tuition rates will be funded by a 1.5% tuition increase for everyone else, which is extremely modest as tuition hikes go. Frank points out that this is in effect charging more to families who can pay more, which is a debatable policy. However, as a good free market capitalist, given the record numbers enrolled in recent years, I think this is a smart decision. When demand is high, you should increase prices until the optimal point on the supply and demand curves is reached. This will maximize profits and lead to the most efficient system of doling out higher education. And if a land grant university wants to use those profits to provide free education to those who wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford it, I say it’s a heck of a better plan than welfare. Those kids will end up contributing to the economy rather than sucking money out of it.