The Foreign Service Journal, December 2009

D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 9 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 85 S CHOOLS S UPPLEMENT on higher education by $37 million, and Virginia (at the time of this writ- ing) is looking at possible midyear cuts of 5 to 15 percent. Community col- leges are already reducing student services and cutting staff, as well as leaving openings unfilled; even so, tuition hikes have become inevitable. In October, the College Board reported that tuition and mandatory fees at public four-year colleges and universities had risen an average of 6.5 percent over 2008, with communi- ty college costs jumping by 7.3 per- cent, on average. According to Coll- ege Board analyst Sandra Baum, that jump was caused in large part by California, which has 17 percent of all community college students in the country and which had the highest percentage-point tuition and fee in- creases. Virgina’s community college costs also rose sharply, by 7.9 percent, higher than the national average. But 37 states had smaller cost increases. And, Baum emphasizes, the federal government and colleges and universi- ties themselves have been responding with increased student aid in the form of grants, tax credits and other support. About two-thirds of all college students receive financial assistance, she says, typically about $5,000 in grants and $4,600 in federal loans, each. “There is a lot of financial aid out there,” she says. “But it is complicated, and you have to do some digging to figure out President Obama has proposed an initiative that would substantially boost funding to community colleges by $12 billion. Continued from page 78 Continued on page 88