....and another story on how much college costs have gone up, and how many more AMERICAN students CAN'T afford to go to college ..and the idiot Senators and pro-illegal alien advocates want to push the DREAM Act on the AMerican citizens.....? Are they insane?

College Affordability: Brother, can you spare a dime?
4:16 PM Thu, Dec 04, 2008 | Permalink | Yahoo! Buzz
William McKenzie E-mail Suggest a blog topic

Rodger's pushing hard for a way for Texas to have more Tier One, or leading research, universities. Amen to that. But here's another university issue that hits people right where they live and will become both an issue in the coming Texas governor's race and the contest to succeed Tom Craddick as House speaker. And that is the affordability of college.

The New York Times reported yesterday on a new study that says college is affordable for median income families in only California. That's right, only one state.

The report, by the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, claims that college costs -- tuitions, fees, room and board -- have risen 439 percent in inflation adjusted dollars over the last 25 years, while median family incomes have risen 147 percent in inflation adjusted dollars.

The net college costs for a middle class family is 25 percent of family median income. What's worse, it's 55 percent of family income for the poorest category of families. Those, of course, are the folks we really want attending college so they or their children break out of the cycle of poverty.

I'm going to talk in future blog posts about the options before Texas legislators next year. For now, I want to point to this study to show that college affordability is becoming a big, big issue for families, especially with the stock market taking a whack at investment accounts.