High cost of college

TUITION hikes are always a sore subject among parents and students with college bills to pay. They are especially troublesome when they are accompanied by reports about the high salaries paid to university administrators, coaches, and professors.

Last summer, Gov. Ted Strickland lifted a ban on tuition increases that had been in effect for more than two years. That allowed colleges to raise tuition by as much as 3.5 percent this year and next in anticipation of a $170 million cut in state aid to higher education in fiscal 2011. The University of Toledo, Bowling Green State University, and Ohio State University all have announced maximum increases.

For lower-income students, at least some of the pain from the hikes is absorbed by increases in scholarship aid and federal Pell Grants. Middle-class families, however, often have to absorb the entire increase.

That can be difficult, with the national economy just beginning to show signs of life after a long, deep recession. The Toledo area, as often is the case, was harder hit and is slower to recover than either the state or the nation.

Having to dig deeper to pay for college can make parents and students bristle at stories about the big bucks pulled down by some people in higher education. True, some faculty pay for themselves through the research grants they bring to the university. Coaches and athletic directors also can pay for themselves in the form of increased ticket sales, booster donations, and bowl-game or tournament receipts.

But double-digit unemployment, layoffs, pay cuts, and unpaid furloughs make those distinctions more difficult to see for many people. Fair or not, parents who must sacrifice just to dig up a couple of hundred dollars more for their child's tuition don't want to hear about medical faculty and football coaches who are paid more than $350,000 a year.

Families scrimping to make ends meet aren't impressed by the argument that top administrators have to be paid $400,000, $500,000, or more, because that's the going rate. And the economic blow from a tuition hike isn't made easier to bear by assurances that tuition at area colleges still is a great bargain. College administrators who aren't sensitive to these realities may suggest that they earn too much money to relate to the concerns of middle-class families.

Ultimate responsibility, of course, rests with Governor Strickland and state lawmakers who balanced the current biennial budget, in part, by slashing funds for higher education. That formula, if repeated, could hurt Ohio's economic prospects.

One of the few bright spots in the recession has been the number of young people who decided to continue their education rather than look for nonexistent jobs. According to a report by the Brookings Institution, the Toledo metro area was a leader in that trend, with 60 percent of its 18 to 24-year-olds in college.

A well-educated work force is a powerful economic development tool, as Ohio's recent growth in high-tech and alternative-energy jobs demonstrates. Pricing higher education beyond the reach of families would blunt that tool, hurting current students and the economic future of all Ohioans.