Dive Brief:
- Average tuition at Mississippi's junior and community colleges will increase to $2,476 for the 2014-15 school year, up 4% from 2013-14.
- The state’s Board of Community and Junior Colleges says that nine of the 15 independently governed junior and community colleges in Mississippi will raise their tuition.
- Enrollment at the state’s two-year schools had increased by more than 20% during the recession, but it has now fallen for three straight years due to an improving job market cutting the need for training, the Associated Press reported.
Dive Insight:
The tuition is going up in spite of a 4.6% increase in state funding, to $250 million, for the fiscal year that begins July 1. The average community college tuition in Mississippi was 3.2% of median family income in Mississippi in 2000, and by 2013 it was 6%, according to the AP. In 20 of Mississippi's 82 counties, local governments and private donations will cover any tuition not paid for with financial aid for recent high school graduates.
