Focus on education

College students and their families pay too much for a public education in Indiana. Hoosiers that go to public four-year colleges and universities spend 24 percent of their income on tuition, fees, room and board and other expenses, according to a report released last week by the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education.\nThe Center's board of directors includes governors, college presidents, professors and prominent business people. It was established in 1998, and the study is its second.\nThe Center's study, Measuring Up 2002, was funded through grants from groups including the Carnegie Corporation of New York, The Ford Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and The Pew Charitable Trusts.\nIndiana received a grade of D+ for affordability relative to the rest of the country. Eighteen other states ranked ahead of Indiana, despite that Indiana's Gross State Product is more than $182 billion, No. 15 in the country, according to 1999 figures. Citizens in Connecticut, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Utah and Wisconsin -- states that produce less than Indiana (thereby bringing fewer dollars into each state) -- spend less of their income on a public college education.\nIndiana's legislators must do more now.\nBy 2008, the U.S. budget is predicted to decrease by nearly 4 percent and Indiana's by 5.7 percent, according to the Center.\nThis should alarm all Hoosiers. The poorest 20 percent of Indiana residents spend 55 percent of their income on a public college education, lower-middle income residents spend 26 percent, middle income 19 percent, upper-middle income 14 percent and the 20 percent with the highest income spend 9 percent.\nThe percentages are only bound to increase if the state continues to ignore pleas from college administrators that they are not receiving enough support. Lawmakers should read the Center's report carefully, and Kentucky Gov. Paul Patton, chair of the National Governors Association, says it can help. \n"Each state is unique, of course, but the agenda of the Measuring Up series is so broadly relevant a template that all can work within it," Patton writes on the Center's Web site. "Kentucky is doing so, and so can every state and the nation. Measuring Up 2000 stimulated and reinforced our drive for improvement in Kentucky, and it is being used for that purpose by many governors and legislators throughout America."\nThe report is of course only a starting point, but for the legislature to continually tell educators "sorry, we just don't have your money because the entire state is running deficits," is to run away from the problem. If this is the only answer schools like IU can expect, than Indiana residents can continue to expect to spend more money on public education. In addition, they can expect fewer qualified professors, larger classes and fewer resources.\nThe state, which complains too few college graduates from Indiana stay in-state after getting a degree, can expect fewer residents that are able to pay for their education, meaning fewer will attend college, producing fewer graduates.\nOne's level of education and income have a strong, direct correlation. If the state is not prepared to support its citizens now, what will it do in 20 or 30 years when the state is less educated and poorer? What will the budget look like then?