Responding to college-cost audit, Nixon touts affordability
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon is doubling down on his stance that Missouri is a "national leader in college affordability" in response to a recent state audit that found in-state and out-of-state students are bearing more of the costs at public universities and colleges.
Since fiscal year 2009, state funding per full-time student dropped 19 percent, according to a report released last week by Auditor Nicole Galloway. Lawmakers kept schools from raising tuition more than the consumer price index starting in the 2008 school year, the report said, so over the course of six years, the state's four-year colleges upped supplemental course and degree fees to raise money by 112 percent per full-time student — in-state and out-of-state — and net tuition and required fees went up 25 percent for all students as well.
Galloway's audit does confirm Nixon's repeated assertion: Missouri has had the lowest public-university tuition increases in the U.S. since 2008. But in-state undergraduate tuition is only one metric to gauge college affordability. Missouri ranked 39th in the nation for state appropriations per full-time student in fiscal years 2008 through 2014, and was 43rd nationally in the 2014-2015 school year for state funding per $1,000 in personal income.
Nixon told The Associated Press that it is "indisputable" that state spending on higher education is at record levels, noting scholarship increases and a $200 million bonding package for capital improvements that helped boost funding by 3.9 percent between fiscal years 2009 and 2015.
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