Stanley G. Tate, founder of Florida’s Prepaid College Plan, has an urgent message for students and parents: in order to stop lawmakers from raising tuition, citizens must raise hell.
Tate is taking aim at proposed legislation that will permit every state university to increase tuition by an up to 15 percent “differential” that goes beyond the rates set in the annual appropriations bill until the total sum reaches the national average.
“I understand how concerned our state university presidents are about the serious budget cuts they are facing, but moving the problem to tomorrow’s college students is not the way to solve Florida’s need for more college graduates,” Tate said. “I believe the only way a child, especially one of modest means, will succeed is by getting a higher education, especially in our current economic climate.”
In 1987, Tate helped create the prepaid program to help parents pre-purchase a four year college education for their children at affordable prices. He’s worried that the uition hikes will place college out of reach for millions of families.
“While the nearly 1.3 million Floridians who pre-purchased college programs for their children either through a one time payment, or installment payments are protected, beginning next year the cost will double,” Tate stated. “Most parents will no longer be able to afford the luxury of planning for their children’s college educations.”
Most Floridians share Tate’s concerns. A recent Quinnipiac University poll showed that 78 percent of Floridians oppose the new differential tuition plan.
The rising cost of college continues to take a heavy toll on FAMU’s students. FAMU graduates leave with an average of $29,742 in loan debt, the highest reported number in the State University System. Also, when tuition and living expenses go up, most FAMU students take fewer classes due to their lack of funds. That hurts FAMU’s graduation rate.
As part of his lobbying campaign, Tate has launched FloridaAffordableTuition.com, which includes an informational video, open letter, and link to a petition against the tuition increases.
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Stanley Tate is so off base. He knows good and damn well low-income students/parents are utilizing prepaid. The avg. income of prepaid purchasers is $70,000. That's hardly low-income.
ReplyDelete$70,000 is not affluent by any stretch of the imagination. It's middle class, but not rich. These tuition increases are just going to prevent more kids from attending college.
ReplyDeleteFlorida's budget cuts are doing more harm than these proposed tuition increases.
ReplyDeleteOddly enough, Mr. Tate failed to mention that UF,FSU, USF, UCF, &FIU already have the ability to raise tuition 15% a year. It's FAMU that doesn't have this ability.
Is an FSU/FIU education worth more than a FAMU education?
"Is an FSU/FIU education worth more than a FAMU education?"
ReplyDeleteNo. But FSU and FIU's students can afford higher tuition than FAMU's. They're not graduating with more than $29,000 in debt.
So FAMU should be held back for having poor students or students who choose "rims' and purses over books?
ReplyDeleteThe "rims" and "purses" stereotype is so tired. Most of the time, the people riding around campus with huge rims and blasting obnoxious music aren't even FAMU students.
ReplyDeleteFAMU would not be #1 in student debt in the SUS if college were actually affordable. Students from families making only $40,000/year can't afford the same tuition increases as universities where most students' parents make at least twice that much.