Recession drives up college tuition nationwide - Larry Gordon, LA Times

The recession helped push up the cost of college this year, with students facing bigger bills because of reduced state spending on higher education and diminished campus endowments, according to a College Board report released Tuesday. Tackling severe budget problems, four-year public colleges in the U.S. raised annual tuition and fees by an average 6.5%, to $7,020 this fall, the board found in its annual survey. That figure does not include room, board and other expenses. Private colleges saw the value of their investments drop in the same period but were worried about pricing out recession-battered families, officials said. So tuition climbed a more modest 4.4% at four-year private schools this year, bringing the average to $26,273.