By Hannah Brockway
Capital News Service
ANNAPOLIS, Maryland — A bill that aims to ensure young, undocumented Maryland students referred to as “Dreamers,” can pursue higher education by giving qualified individuals access to in-state tuition is advancing in the Maryland General Assembly.
Coppin State University is piggybacking off of Mayor Catherine Pugh’s plan to send more city youth to college at no cost.
One piece of Mayor Catherine Pugh’s newly released violence-reduction plan rests on the idea that a financial jumpstart for college-bound high school grads can help keep them out of harm’s way.
Johns Hopkins is one of the best universities in the country; it’s also one of the most expensive.
Johns Hopkins, one of the most expensive universities in the country, is about to get a little more pricey– 3.5 percent more pricey, to be precise.
As anyone who has paid (or anticipated paying) college tuition bills knows, the cost of a college education has been skyrocketing over recent decades. (The good news? Many families don’t have to pay full price–but that’s another story.) And one Johns Hopkins prof has an intriguing solution to reduce college costs by a quarter percent: a three year degree.
Paul Weinstein, who directs Hopkins’ graduate program in public management, found that a three-year degree at a public, in-state school carried an average tuition of $26,679, 25 percent less than a four-year equivalent. Shorter, less-expensive degrees would also mean lower school loan payments, and (potentially) higher class sizes. Several universities, including Wesleyan, Purdue, and Bates, already offer three-year programs.
Washington DC is not part of any state, which makes them the best, most impartial judges to determine which is the best state in America. The answer? Maryland, of course– but not necessarily for the reason you might expect.
Johns Hopkins is consistently ranked one of the best institutes of undergraduate education in the country. Not surprisingly, it’s also one of the most expensive. Next year will be no exception: Students (or parents) paying for the 2014-2015 school year can expect to pony up $47,060 for a year of undergraduate tuition, plus $14,246 in room and board. That comes to $61,306, a 3.5 percent increase from last year.
In recent years, there has been lots of press about the skyrocketing costs of college tuition. But parents in Maryland can expect to pay their heftiest education bills far earlier in their children’s lives; according to a report by Child Care Aware America, the annual cost of daycare in Maryland is nearly $5,000 more than the average tuition and fees of public college.
In case you haven’t been following along, the Washington Post has been running an extensive series called “The Tuition is Too Damn High.” The underlying point is that — you guessed it! — college costs way, way too much these days. The cost of going to college has more than doubled over the past 45 years, even accounting for inflation. Rising costs contribute to more student debt, more stressed out parents, and perhaps even greater inflation.
