Mayor DeStefano prides himself on his UConn education. He is a product of Connecticut’s public education system, having earned both his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Storrs. When the mayor was young, the promise of public higher education was bedrock to Connecticut’s youth.
However, today’s exploding costs and bundled bureaucracies have undermined Connecticut’s commitment to equal opportunity for all its citizens. Next fall, Connecticut’s undergraduates in the Connecticut State University System will be tagged with another 5.8% increase in tuition. These costs raise the average tuition to $5,936, nearly a 300% increase from the $1,500 Connecticut students paid in 1989. In the face of shrinking state support from the Rowland/Rell administration, Connecticut has poised itself to charge one of the nation’s highest public tuitions.
In today’s world, Connecticut’s youth are trying against all these odds to fulfill the American dream. While our generation’s maxim tells us that a college education is critical, our state is not doing enough to live up to the promise and motivation our students deliver.
While Connecticut’s students are burdened with higher costs, Connecticut hasn’t blinked twice in raising salaries for its highest education officials. The President of the University of Connecticut is making more than $385,000 this year (compare that to the $127,000 he made in 1990). More and more bureaucratic positions are being created, while what we really need are more professors.
We should be helping families relieve the financial weight of college tuition. Instead, students are forced to get extra jobs to help pay their tuition. If these scary trends in our public education standards continue, we will be closing doors of opportunity at a time when they need to be as wide open as possible.
Just think about this:
Year 1989-1990 2005-2006
Public tuition: $1,510 $5,936
UConn President’s salary $127,000 $385,000
This shouldn’t be the promise of public education.
