California named as only state with affordable colleges on clarkhoward.com

College is often considered one of the best ways to step up the income ladder and have flexibility in terms of career choice. But right now, the affordability of college itself is in doubt.

The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education has issued a "report card" with grades for every state that rank them on college affordability and other criteria.

Every single state got an F except for California, which got a C-.

Why did California earn the only passing grade? The state has had a longstanding tradition of students spending their first 2 years at a cheap community college and their last 2 years at more expensive 4-year schools. In essence, college students in the Golden State have been getting degrees at 50% off for years.

This is one circumstance where the other 49 states can learn from California. Clark would love students in all states to consider doing a few years at a community college before jumping into a traditional 4-year school.

The penny-pincher often gets calls from people with massive student loan debt. Don't be one of those people. Think about the alternatives.

What others are saying

re: College Why?
Jane is absolutely correct. Isn't that the reason Japan and China have been eating our lunch in math and sciences over the the last 10 years or so. You can't "mainstream" everyone without harming the achievers. Funnel the non-motivated and non-achievers into vocational and trade curriculums.
By Just stating the obvious @ 12/15/08 02:30:38 PMreport abuse
community college good in theory
I totally agree that going to community college the first two years and then transferring in is a great idea but in NC the colleges make is so hard to transfer between schools that you end up losing a year if your lucky but most loose most of the credits they have earned. Even transferring between four year universities is hard. My brother transferred schools and lost three semesters of credits going in between NC State and ECU.
By EA Ritter @ 12/11/08 05:01:54 PMreport abuse
College why?
Most kids have no business going to a four year college or university. They would be better off learning a trade instead of fooling around wasting their parent's money and valuable years of time. Our current K-12 system is geared to college prep, and keeping the kids in school as long as possible. We need to change it to a two-track system where high school kids who make the grade academically and have interest are put into a college track curriculum. Everyone else is sent to a trade school or apprentice program where they can learn useful skills and enter the job market prepared to work. The decision age would be at 8th grade.

Now I'm sure the NEA wouldn't like this approach because it would instantly depopulate high schools and cut their budgets but I think we should give it a try.
By Jane @ 12/10/08 04:47:10 PMreport abuse
Core Requirement
How about we do away with the core requirement altogether. It serves no purpose other than to pad the budgets of the schools. All the survey courses should be covered in high school. Maybe then the curriculum could include some extra classes in the students chosen field and lead to a better prepared graduate.
By KSU Student @ 12/10/08 02:40:49 PMreport abuse
Hey Clark - Kolyfonia is Broke!
Um Clark, do you read the news? California may have affordable colleges but it's about to go broke. You think there might be a connection there somewhere? I expect there will be increases in tuition and fees when these colleges have to start paying what it really costs to run kids through the mill.
By Jeff @ 12/10/08 01:02:32 PMreport abuse
To the Moon
My daughter was accepted at a private college and our local state university. The admissions brochures for the private college talked glowingly about it's fine faculty and the endowment fund which provided an average of $8K a year in financial aid. When we finally sat down and added the numbers, the private college would average $52K a year (three quarters) over the four years, and the financial aid offered to us was - zero -! These figures blew us away as they were 20% higher than the numbers in the slick brochures and all their talk of financial aid was just hot air. We are not poor ($120K annual earnings), but there is no way we could afford to send her to this school without going heavily into debt.

Our daughter is attending the state university at a cost of about $19K per year (two-semesters). Even this is on the high end of what we consider affordable and it makes me wonder what people will do in a few years time when the rates have doubled.
By Ted G @ 12/10/08 12:55:50 PMreport abuse
Affordable college
The sad part is that the increases are not going to the folks who are doing the work: staff and faculty.
By Jim242 @ 12/10/08 11:41:55 AMreport abuse
Affordable college
Absolutely true. Nobody cares about where your core classes are taken, just where you graduated, and that's not that important in many marketable majors.
By Dave54 @ 12/10/08 08:18:51 AMreport abuse

re: College Why?

Jane is absolutely correct. Isn't that the reason Japan and China have been eating our lunch in math and sciences over the the last 10 years or so. You can't "mainstream" everyone without harming the achievers. Funnel the non-motivated and non-achievers into vocational and trade curriculums.

By Just stating the obvious @ 12/15/08 02:30:38 PMreport abuse

community college good in theory

I totally agree that going to community college the first two years and then transferring in is a great idea but in NC the colleges make is so hard to transfer between schools that you end up losing a year if your lucky but most loose most of the credits they have earned. Even transferring between four year universities is hard. My brother transferred schools and lost three semesters of credits going in between NC State and ECU.

By EA Ritter @ 12/11/08 05:01:54 PMreport abuse

College why?

Most kids have no business going to a four year college or university. They would be better off learning a trade instead of fooling around wasting their parent's money and valuable years of time. Our current K-12 system is geared to college prep, and keeping the kids in school as long as possible. We need to change it to a two-track system where high school kids who make the grade academically and have interest are put into a college track curriculum. Everyone else is sent to a trade school or apprentice program where they can learn useful skills and enter the job market prepared to work. The decision age would be at 8th grade.

Now I'm sure the NEA wouldn't like this approach because it would instantly depopulate high schools and cut their budgets but I think we should give it a try.

By Jane @ 12/10/08 04:47:10 PMreport abuse

Core Requirement

How about we do away with the core requirement altogether. It serves no purpose other than to pad the budgets of the schools. All the survey courses should be covered in high school. Maybe then the curriculum could include some extra classes in the students chosen field and lead to a better prepared graduate.

By KSU Student @ 12/10/08 02:40:49 PMreport abuse

Hey Clark - Kolyfonia is Broke!

Um Clark, do you read the news? California may have affordable colleges but it's about to go broke. You think there might be a connection there somewhere? I expect there will be increases in tuition and fees when these colleges have to start paying what it really costs to run kids through the mill.

By Jeff @ 12/10/08 01:02:32 PMreport abuse

To the Moon

My daughter was accepted at a private college and our local state university. The admissions brochures for the private college talked glowingly about it's fine faculty and the endowment fund which provided an average of $8K a year in financial aid. When we finally sat down and added the numbers, the private college would average $52K a year (three quarters) over the four years, and the financial aid offered to us was - zero -! These figures blew us away as they were 20% higher than the numbers in the slick brochures and all their talk of financial aid was just hot air. We are not poor ($120K annual earnings), but there is no way we could afford to send her to this school without going heavily into debt.

Our daughter is attending the state university at a cost of about $19K per year (two-semesters). Even this is on the high end of what we consider affordable and it makes me wonder what people will do in a few years time when the rates have doubled.

By Ted G @ 12/10/08 12:55:50 PMreport abuse

Affordable college

The sad part is that the increases are not going to the folks who are doing the work: staff and faculty.

By Jim242 @ 12/10/08 11:41:55 AMreport abuse

Absolutely true. Nobody cares about where your core classes are taken, just where you graduated, and that's not that important in many marketable majors.

By Dave54 @ 12/10/08 08:18:51 AMreport abuse

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Dec 09, 2008 -- California named as only state with affordable colleges

What others are saying