Money shouldn't be barrier to higher ed
December 17, 2008
With 50 community college systems and 35 public universities in Texas, tuition costs between colleges and universities will vary. At the Alamo Community Colleges, our board of trustees has been keenly aware of college affordability issues and has strived to maintain affordable college costs.
Written by Bruce Leslie, The San Antonio Express-News
Bruce Leslie is chancellor of Alamo Community Colleges.
A recent article in the Express-News cites the latest report by the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education that gave every state except California an F in college affordability.
With 50 community college systems and 35 public universities in Texas, tuition costs between colleges and universities will vary. At the Alamo Community Colleges, our board of trustees has been keenly aware of college affordability issues and has strived to maintain affordable college costs.
A full semester at the Alamo Community Colleges costs only $745 for tuition and fees. Students who qualify for federal financial aid receive an average of $4,208 a year. After paying tuition and fees for a year at ACC, that leaves the student an average of $2,718 for books, supplies and some living expenses. For the spring semester, we are adding a new Tuition Freeze program that guarantees today's low tuition rates for students making an education commitment for the next few years.
As I talk to people in our community, I am always surprised at the amazed looks on people's faces when they learn of our low tuition rates. Why they don't know of our low tuition rates is a mystery to me. I might add that our students do quite well when they transfer to four-year universities. For example, almost 50 percent of students who earn their Bachelor of Arts degrees at UTSA are community college transfer students.
We are proud of the affordable education we provide the 100,000 students who attend the Alamo Community Colleges on an annual basis and of the success they have when they transfer to four-year schools or enter the local work force. However, much work remains to be done. We must not lose sight of the thousands in our city who have not earned a high school diploma, the thousands who complete high school but do not continue their education, or those who start college but do not complete their education.
Even with our low tuition rates, we still provide $90 million annually in financial aid, the largest amount in Texas. To paraphrase the late Rep. Irma Rangel, lack of money is no longer an excuse not to go to college. We encourage everyone in our community to increase their educational attainment at the Alamo Community Colleges or at any one of our fine, local four-year universities.
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