The Student Debt Crisis, State-By-State

Generation Progress (formerly Campus Progress) is putting together state-by-state factsheets about the student debt crisis. They’ve done six states so far, including California, where I went as an undergrad. State and local funding dropped by 25.4 percent in the U.C. system in the last decade, and in-state tuition has now skyrocketed by 114 percent, according to data from the College Board.

Interestingly, funding and tuition at local community colleges have remained relatively stable, and I’m wondering if this is in part due to because community colleges don’t generally have campus housing, or state of the art classrooms, or other amenities that some of the bigger public universities have added to attract students from out of state. I’m also wondering, if I were a high school student today, if I would have considered attending a community college for my first two years and then transferring to U.C. to save on tuition costs rather than having the full experience of attending a university for all four years.

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