THE COST OF COLLEGE: STATE COMMISSION APPOINTED TO EXAMINE PRICE OF HIGHER EDUCATION

How affordable is a college education in Missouri?

A state commission hopes to answer that question this year.

The Missouri Commission on the Affordability of Higher Education was established by the state's Coordinating Board for Higher Education to make recommendations about the price of attending college.

The commission also was instructed to look at the factors affecting the cost of attendance, the role of student financial aid, state and local appropriations and other subsidies, and relevant public policies related to the affordability of higher education.

The 28-member commission officially was launched at the Governor's Conference on Higher Education last December.

It held its first full meeting Monday.

The commission is expected to finish its work and report its recommendations at the governor's conference in December.

Commission members include faculty, administrators, students and people from various businesses.

Dr. Nancy Blattner, who chairs Southeast Missouri State University's Faculty Senate, serves on the commission.

Blattner said the state commission is an outgrowth of a national commission that studied the cost of higher education.

Part of the state commission's job is to better inform the public about college costs.

"We are being asked to be more accountable to students, families and policy leaders about the price and cost of education," Blattner said.

Coordinating Board spokeswoman Cheryl Kesel said the public often doesn't realize what it costs to go to college in Missouri.

"Sometimes, they think it costs more than it actually does," said Kesel.

"Really, truthfully, we think it is pretty affordable in Missouri," she said.

The commission is looking at all of higher education, including public and private colleges and universities, and private career schools.

Missouri has the 15th largest system of higher education in the nation, according to a Coordinating Board report.

In the fall of 1997, Missouri's public and private schools enrolled more than 320,000 students and conferred more than 68,000 certificates and degrees.

Nearly 60 percent of all students were enrolled in public institutions, with another 41 percent attending private colleges and universities and career schools.

Missouri's public and private higher education is a $4.8 billion industry.

Of that amount, 43 percent is generated by three private schools in St. Louis -- Washington University, St. Louis University and Webster University.

The University of Missouri system accounts for another 28 percent.

The system of public education includes the four-campus University of Missouri system, six other state universities including Southeast, three state colleges, 12 community college districts, a two-year technical college and 58 postsecondary vocational and technical schools.

The state is home to 23 private, four-year colleges and universities. It also has a number of other private schools, including three two-year colleges, 31 professional, technical and theological schools, 121 private career schools, and 200 private schools such as barber schools that come under the licensing jurisdiction of the Missouri Department of Economic Development.

Tuition and fees increased for every sector of Missouri higher education over the past 10 years, the board's report said.

The increases by percentage were lower at private schools than at public institutions.

Tuition and fees increased by:

-- 70 percent at the state's private colleges and universities that grant master's and baccalaureate degrees.

-- 96 percent at the three private universities that grant doctoral degrees.

-- 106 percent at the public universities, which includes Southeast. It excludes the University of Missouri system.

-- 121 percent at the state's community colleges.

-- 153 percent at the public, four-year colleges.

-- 156 percent at the University of Missouri campuses.

Between 1990 and 1999, the average charge for room and board at schools with residence halls increased from $2,755 to $4,412 or 60 percent.

The average cost for books and related supplies increased from $461 to $719, a 56 percent hike, the board's study showed.

In all, the state's public two- and four-year colleges and universities charged full-time resident undergraduate students less than $4,300 in tuition and required fees, on average, for the current academic year.

Tuition and fees at master-degree granting private schools averaged $9,866 a year.

The average price to attend the state's three doctorate-degree granting private schools totaled $16,600 a year, the Coordinating Board said.

One in 10 students is enrolled in institutions where the sticker price for tuition and fees is more than $10,000, the CBHE study showed.

For many students, financial aid is crucial to their education.

In fiscal 1997, 116,345 students or nearly a third of all students enrolled in higher education received some form of need-based financial aid.

Statewide, financial aid totaled more than $1 billion to students in Missouri in fiscal 1997.