Dive Summary:
- A report by the nonprofit College Board's Advocacy & Policy Center found that, over the past three years, Missouri's four-year public colleges have led the nation with the lowest increases (6.1%) in tuition and fee hikes.
- Ozarks Technical Community College Chancellor Hal Higdon said it was a remarkable accomplishment in light of diminished public funding for higher education in Missouri, where back-to-back freezes negotiated by the governor in recent years and laws passed by the state legislature making increases more difficult have landed the state at 44th in the nation for higher education spending.
- Clif Smart, interim president of Missouri State University, says his university also wants to do what it can to remain affordable, citing the two-thirds of new jobs in Missouri that require a four-year degree and the percentage of first-generation college students.
From the article:
A nonprofit’s national report on rising tuition and fees in higher education concludes what could be expected after Missouri’s governor in recent years negotiated back-to-back freezes and the state legislature passed a law making increases more difficult. According to the College Board’s Advocacy & Policy Center, over the past three years Missouri’s four-year public colleges have led the nation in keeping a lid on tuition and fee hikes. The increase was 6.1 percent, the smallest boost in the nation. For two-year colleges in the state, it was 6.6 percent, the fourth lowest in the nation.