By Gabe Bullard
Louisville, KY – The Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education has capped tuition increases at public universities for the coming academic year. It will be the latest in a string of tuition increases the universities say are necessary to offset rising costs and lackluster funding from the state.
Kentuckiana Works Executive Director Michael Gritton says the hikes are unfortunate, because they can lead to students taking on additional debt and jobs to afford an education.
"They stretch a four year program into a five or six year program. They end up running into funding issues when the water pump goes out in the car and all of a sudden, they drop out for the semester. Then we have a lot of people that are called stop outs in the business because they started and didn't finish. So if you look at the census information for Louisville or for the region, we have over 100,000 people in our region who have some college credit, but no degree."
Gritton says he understands tuition must go up, but he would like to see federal and state scholarship and grant programs expanded to cover the gap.
Tuition increases at community colleges have been capped at four percent. Kentucky's other public universities are limited to five percent increases.