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Cost for College Soaring
The price tag to attend college continues to climb and there's no indication that'll change anytime soon.

The College Board estimates it will cost $180,000 for a four-year, public university when a child born today goes to college. Illinois Student Assistance Commission executive director Andrew Davis says college tuition has been going up significantly faster than the core consumer price index. He says the cost is on a relative and absolute basis getting more expensive all the time.

Davis says college will no longer be an option for many people if the cost to attend continues to increase at the current rate.

"We're not going to reach a point where no one goes to school because it's too expensive," Davis said. "Clearly, the schools can't operate if they're charging tuition that no one can pay. What is going to become a larger and larger issue is income disparity having an even more disparate impact on who is going to college."

Davis says college costs nationally have gone up by an annual average of 4.9 percent over the last 20 years. The increase in Illinois has been nearly 8 percent a year.

Davis says an example of the growing income disparity is a student today from a family of four whose income is in the top 20 percent is five times more likely to graduate from college than a student whose family income is in the bottom 20 percent.

The ISAC head says unless financial aid can keep up, the disparity will become even greater.
04 19 10 by Newsroom
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