McDevitt talks up sky-high tuition during FAMU visit

During her Thursday visit to FAMU, a university at which 78 percent of the student body receives need-based financial aid, Florida Board of Governors Chairwoman Sheila McDevitt expressed hope that college price tags will go up.

“We have to recognize tuition must go up a reasonable amount," McDevitt said. “Students really are going to have to pick up [a] little bit greater share of the cost of their education. Right now it's such a bargain.”

McDevitt is a spirited advocate of raising Florida’s tuition rates to, at least, the national average. She did not mention that the national average tuition price increased at more than double the rate of inflation in 2007.

As part of its campaign to hike college costs, the BOG has sued the Florida Legislature for control of tuition rates. For more than a decade, the legislature has kept tuition low in order to protect the Bright Futures program, which grants generous scholarships to Florida students who perform well in high school. The BOG wants to end this trend.

McDevitt attempted to soften her pro-tuition increase message by stating that she wants more need-based aid.

“We need to create programs that will allow the lower middle income families to be able to obtain aid,” she said.

Last year, McDevitt and her BOG colleagues put forth to a proposal to permanently freeze Bright Futures spending and use a larger portion of the money for need-based aid. The BOG was quiet, though, about the fact that once Bright Futures spending is frozen, it will be impossible for that pool of need-based aid money to keep pace with rising tuition.

Gov. Charlie Crist and the Florida Legislature have largely ignored the BOG’s proposal and worked out their own compromise with public universities across the state. One year ago, Gov. Crist signed a bill authorizing individual universities to offer a new “differential tuition” that is not covered by Bright Futures.

“Level 1” research universities can institute a differential that goes 40 percent beyond the tuition rates set by the annual appropriations bill; “Level 2” research universities can increase by 30 percent. Thus far, UF, FSU, USF, UCF, and FIU have all qualified.

The compromise permits FAMU, which primarily serves students from low-income families, to maintain an affordable tuition rate while freeing universities with wealthier student bodies to charge more.

However, if the BOG wins its lawsuit, the resulting tuition hikes could mean serious trouble for most FAMU students.

For more on skyrocketting college costs, see CNN Money's "College tuition is far outpacing the cost of living."

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