How much higher can college tuition go?

We wrote earlier on a study by The Family Foundation of Kentucky last year reporting that Kentucky's colleges and universities have failed to control costs and have been increasing tuition rates that far outstrip median households.

But that didn't stop the University of Louisville and the University of Kentucky from seeking a 6 percent increase in tuition and Eastern Kentucky and Northern Kentucky universities from raising rates by 5 percent -- all well above the rate of inflation, and above what Kentucky families can afford.

"Six percent is almost three times the rate of inflation," said Martin Cothran, senior policy analyst with The Family Foundation of Kentucky. "Every tuition increase of this size puts a college education that much more out of reach."

Apparently, those increases were approved by the Council on Postsecondary Education's meeting recently. To see how much the price of obtaining a college degree has risen in the past 20 years, click on the graph below. This graph was published in the April 2011 edition of The Lane Report.



Blaming the increases on the need "to partially offset budgeted cuts in state funding," the council said it "will be establishing performance targets that will affect future funding and tuition levels."

A press release stepped all over itself to trumpet that its "performance targets will include metrics such as improved graduation rates."

Which raises the question: Why weren't these metrics already in place?