EDITORIAL: Additional Money For Michigan Universities Should Fund Increased Student Financial Aid
DR. MARY SUE Coleman has been asking Governor Rick Snyder for additional funding with admirable tenacity. He is proposing an $80.3 million dollar increase. Dr. Coleman undoubtedly hopes that the University of Michigan will receive a large slice of any funding offered up to the state’s 15 public universities.
State appropriations to the University of Michigan dropped from $320,662,000 in 2005 to a projected $279,108,700 in 2014, a loss of a total of 12.9 percent over the past decade—some $41.5 million dollars. Drops in state appropriations to the University have been repeatedly cited by Dr. Mary Sue Coleman as the primary reason for increases in tuition. In February 2013, Dr. Coleman appeared before the Michigan House Appropriations Subcommittee on Higher Education and told the group: “We know we have to have tuition increases, particularly because the state has not been able to invest in us the way we would like. I am very cognizant of the burdens on families, but I am also cognizant of my responsibility to keep this place competitive.”
Between 2005 and 2014, the University of Michigan’s income from tuition and fees rose from $675,392,000 to $1,156,646,746, an increase of $481,254,746—over 10 times the total amount lost from state appropriations over the same period. While students, their parents, federal subsidy and loan programs paid to meet substantially higher costs for tuition and fees assessed by the University of Michigan between 2005 and 2013, officials at the University of Michigan increased the amount allotted to centrally awarded financial aid just 1.8 percent in ten years. Pay for upper-level administrators, during that same period, increased by as much as 150 percent.
We’re pleased that Governor Snyder is proposing a funding increase for the state’s public universities. We believe University of Michigan officials must allocate to student financial aid increases a large part of any funding increase the Legislature may award. Families with incomes of between $20,001-$40,000 can expect to pay $6,098 per year for a child to attend Michigan, or between 15-30 percent of their income to cover 25 percent of the cost of housing, as well as the cost of books and supplies. Families with incomes as low as $20,001 are expected to take out annual $2,500 loans and pay $500 toward costs. This prolonged financial aid draught must end. No low income family in our state should be expected to pay 30 percent of its income to meet college costs.