Connecticut colleges and universities may face large tuition hikes to help combat budget deficit

As Connecticut faces a $1 billion budget deficit going into the new year, the state’s Board of Regents is looking to options that would make an education at public universities and community colleges markedly more expensive starting next year.

According to a story on January 14 from the Connecticut Post, state legislators have been mulling several “worst-case scenarios” over the past few weeks that would increase tuition at a state-run school by anywhere from 3 to 14 percent to absorb some of the state’s debt.

Under one of the scenarios, the tuition and fees at a community college in the state would rise from $3,598 to $4,082.

Another possible resolution shows tuition at one of Connecticut’s four state universities rising from an average of $8,568 to $9,628.This would mean a hike of 12.4 percent for students who commute to campus and even greater fees for students who choose to live on campus.

“I think the best increase is no increase. Everything already costs so much money. With the economy the way it is, I think the pursuit of education should be the last thing that should go,” Simon Musa, an advanced manufacturing student at Housatonic Community College in Bridgeport, told the source.

Over the past two years, the Board of Regents has already implemented a decrease in the block grant offered to community colleges, public universities and Charter Oak State College, a semester-based state institution. The Board also made $14.4 million in rescissions going into the 2012-2013 school year to help eat away at a $360 million budget gap.

These tuition hikes would not affect the University of Connecticut (UCONN), which operates under a separate system from the colleges and universities that face potential budget gaps.