Though classes start in 57 days at the University of Massachusetts, and it is 39 days before bills come due, students and their families still don’t know the price.
They find out Thursday, when trustees set tuition for the coming year. But the bad news is already out: The cost of attending UMass could be $1,500 higher, or even more.
After all the talk of controlling higher ed costs, and a few years when bills didn’t increase at UMass, undergraduates and their families face the prospect of a 5 to 8 percent rise. It will be the second year of increases and comes after the state closed a fiscal year deep in a hole.
The budget allotment from the Legislature’s conference committee holds UMass to a 1.4 percent increase. That’s not enough to keep up with expenses, so the extra burden will fall largely on households. For the first-year student, a $1,500 increase is likely to be a $6,000 increase over four years of study.
Once again, the Legislature has treated UMass as another budget line item, albeit a big one, and not made it a top goal to keep college affordable. This is a disappointment to tens of thousands of families — and should be a warning to parents of children still in elementary or secondary school.
Senate President Stanley Rosenberg said the week before last that “making higher education more affordable should be one of our top priorities.” That view wasn’t shared by enough lawmakers this year.
Something else Rosenberg said implies he doesn’t expect this to change. He said the Senate “will continue to work to find ways to grow our economy, and increase our revenue, so that we do not have to make these kinds of difficult choices in the future.”
For decades, Rosenberg has been one of the university’s strongest supporters on Beacon Hill. It is disappointing to hear him suggest that its funding prospects remain conditional on the state doing well economically. Lean times will continue to make it harder for Massachusetts families to pay for college.
For example, consider that extra $1,500. A student working at minimum wage this summer to help pay for school would have to put in more than 18 days just to cover that unexpected part of the bill. Depending on their tax status it might be even more.
And what about next year? A spokesman for the UMass trustees said they will try to keep the increase as small as possible. Families will appreciate that, but the principle of keeping college affordable has already been tossed out the window this year and maybe for years to come.