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American Morning

The Big Question: Is College Becoming Unaffordable?

Aired May 02, 2002 - 09:33   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: The "Big Question" this hour: Is college becoming unaffordable? We've known all along just how incredibly expensive higher education can be. Jack Cafferty knows especially well. And the costs continue to climb.

But now, a new report has caught up with these skyrocketing tuition and has put them into some pretty stark perspective.

CNN's Kathy Slobogin has this report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATHY SLOBOGIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Crystal Fonseca is the first in her family to graduate from college.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How was class last night?

SLOBOGIN: But Crystal paid a price. Her working-class parents could not pay the tuition at the University of Rhode Island, so she worked her way through: 40 hours a week, plus classes.

CRYSTAL FONSECA, WORKING STUDENT: There were times that I would go to a test and I would have to make the choice of I have to work, or I have to study, and it always panned out that I have to work.

SLOBOGIN: Crystal, normally a strong student, was put on academic probation.

FONSECA: My grades suffered tremendously. I was happy to get a C. I had a lot of D's, which I'm not proud of. But with what I had to do and manage, that was the best I could do.

SLOBOGIN: But even working full-time didn't cover the tuition. Her education left her almost $40,000 in debt. She is not alone. If a college education is the path to a middle-class life, it's a path increasingly paved with debt; 64 percent of college seniors graduate in debt, and the average amount has nearly doubled in the last eight years.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Most Americans have lost ground when it comes to paying for college.

SLOBOGIN: A new report finds that a college education is taking a bigger bite than ever before of family income. PAT CALLAN, NATL. CTR. FOR PUBLIC POLICY & HIGHER EDUCATION: It is certainly unaffordable for many of the lowest-income groups. I mean, for the poorest, the percent of family income that it takes to finance a year of college has gone from 13 to almost 26 percent.

SLOBOGIN: Government aid to students has remained fairly constant, but it hasn't keep up with tuition.

For example, according to the report, a federal Pell Grant covered 98 percent of tuition in 1986. By 1998, it covered only 57 percent.

With tuition rising more than twice as fast as inflation for the last decade, Pat Callan says things will only get worse.

CALLAN: You're on a collision course. Nothing in American society, probably accept for health care, has gone up this way. And with health care we seem to solve the problem by a lot of rationing. That is, some people don't have any at all, and that's exactly the situation we want to avoid.

SLOBOGIN: Although she struggled, Crystal Fonsica is a success story, now going after master's degree, debt and all. Her motivation: to be successful enough to one day pay for her children's education.

Kathy Slobogin, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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