NPR Morning Edition-Transcript

National Public Radio (NPR) March 25, 2004 Thursday
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National Public Radio (NPR)

SHOW: Morning Edition (11:00 AM AM ET) - NPR

March 25, 2004 Thursday

HEADLINE: Rising college tuition

ANCHORS: RENEE MONTAGNE

REPORTERS: ANTHONY BROOKS

BODY:
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:

It's the time of year when high school seniors get those fat college acceptance letters followed by the tuition bill. The price of a university education has been climbing faster than family incomes for the past quarter-century. Last year saw the sharpest increase ever with the price of a four-year public university jumping 14 percent. Some lawmakers in Washington say reckless spending by universities is driving up the cost. Administrators at public colleges say the problem is falling public support. NPR's Anthony Brooks reports.

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Representative HOWARD "BUCK" McKEON (Republican, California): Ohio State University spent a hundred and forty million dollars to build what many of their peers call a Taj Mahal featuring kayaks, canoes, indoor batting cages, rope course, massages and a climbing wall big enough for 50 students to climb it simultaneously. The University of Cincinnati spending $200 million on a Main Street of sorts, you know, kind of a mall-style student center. These costs are all put on to the students as they attend school.

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Rep. McKEON: And our figures show that if this continues, in the next decade, more than two million college-qualified students are not going to be able to go to school, and I just think that that's a tragedy and something that we shouldn't allow.

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