High Out-of-State Tuition

Very rarely do we find good news within today's headlines. Many of you said this same thing, including in Sam’s “Change… Hopefully” and Kash's "Malicious Madoff?". However when browsing through the USA Today’s headlines I found an interesting and very applicable article to us college students. According to the article more universities are going to offer in-state tuition rates to out-of-state students. This is to encourage more students to apply to the university, meaning opening more doors to intelligent, low-income students. The article states that the costs to attend a 4 year public university in Illinois rose from 19% of a family’s income (1999) to 35% (2007). With these rates we can only imagine what out-of-state students are paying in tuition. I know the idea of equal tuition rates has it negative effects, including on taxes (which I admit know very little about). One person responded to the article in a blog “My state taxes are going to subsidize out-of-state students?”. However the idea of equal costs could serve a great purpose. For some going to a university of choice is impossible, just based upon the out-of-state tuition. What happened to choices and equal opportunity? I know when I was looking for universities to apply to an out of state university was not an option. With Bright Futures and in-state tuition costs, I’d be crazy to go anywhere else but in the state of Florida.