Median family income in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Ohio, and elsewhere is actually higher at public colleges and universities than at most private ones, according to recent reports.
    Jenny Wahl, associate professor of economics at Carleton College (MN) conducted a study for the Minnesota Private College Research Foundation, “A Bigger Bang for the Public Buck: Achieving Efficiency and Equity in Higher Education,” which shows there is a nationwide shift of middle and upper-income students to public universities, while more economically and socially diverse students are enrolling in private colleges and two-year institutions. She writes that, “Public funding of higher education is meant to help all qualified persons continue their schooling regardless of family circumstances. Yet, under the current system, only half of youths from low-income families go on to college or university.... Adopting a cost-based-tuition, need-based-financial-aid approach would improve access considerably, channeling funds to those who need them most. Low-income families are quite sensitive to the net price of higher education whereas middle- and higher-income families are not. Moving away from the current tax-subsidized approach would mean higher enrollment among low-income youths but no significant drop-off in enrollments among other youths.”
    David Laird, Jr., president of the Minnesota Private College Council, draws on Wahl’s findings in “Facing the Challenges in Higher Education,” an article published in the April 16, 2002 issue of Minnesota Journal. He notes Wahl’s argument that “the current system of tuition subsidies in public higher education distorts consumer choice, contributes to the under-allocation and misallocation of private and public resources, and has insidious but pervasive effects on the quality of the services provided.” And he contends that, “putting a cost-based tuition, need-based aid policy into place explicitly is certainly better than letting tuition and aid fluctuate yearly with the budget. Acknowledging honestly that higher public tuition is a fact of life, rather than surprising people with large percentage increases on an artificially low base, will help shape families’ expectations about the true costs of higher education.”
    In Wisconsin, the average family income of students attending private colleges and universities is also lower than the average family income of students attending the four-year campuses of the University of Wisconsin system, according to Rolf Wegenke, president of the Wisconsin Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. In an article in the organization’s “2003 Guide to Admissions & Financial Aid,” he states that “Wisconsin’s private colleges and universities spare no efforts to make it financially possible for all qualified students to attend the school that’s right for them. In 2000-2001, for example, the average price for tuition and fees at Wisconsin’s private colleges and universities was $15,106. That same year, the average freshman financial aid package was $10,869, leaving net tuition costs of only $4,237.” Wegenke adds that “more than 90 percent of freshmen at Wisconsin’s private colleges receive financial aid each year, placing a college education within reach of students from all economic backgrounds…with no operating subsidy from the taxpayers.”
    A report from the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Ohio (AICUO) makes a similar case. “It is a myth that independent colleges enroll students from wealthy families only. The family income profiles of students attending both independent and public institutions are very similar.” A study by AICUO and American College Testing shows that in Ohio, “25 percent of entering full-time freshmen were from families earning “35,000 or less; and almost half (48 percent) were from families earning $50,000 or less. Only one of every five students was from a family with an income above $80,000.” In addition, AICUO reports that during 2000-01, independent institutions in Ohio “provided $438 million of their own money in financial aid for their students. This was 77 percent of all grant aid received by Ohio independent college students. Since 1991, the amount independent institutions spend on financial aid has grown 129 percent.”