By Lauren Wanko
Correspondent
A college degree for $10,000? Assemblyman Troy Singleton says it’s possible and he’s sponsoring legislation that could make that price tag a reality for New Jersey’s college students.
“The bill would require all of our universities, four-year schools, private and public to look at developing these $10,000 degree programs. We were very much ambiguous in how we set it up because each university is gonna look at it differently and what it covers. There is an example of universities already doing it — the University of Southern New Hampshire for instance,” Singleton said.
The $10,000 would cover tuition and fees for baccalaureate degree programs. For the 2014-2015 academic year, in-state undergraduate students paid an average of nearly $13,000 in annual tuition and fees at New Jersey’s public colleges, and that’s not including community colleges. Tuition jumped to just over $35,000 for New Jersey’s independent colleges.
“One of the reasons why we’re doing this bill is so often we’re starting to see college almost becoming a luxury item and that for us cannot be the case,” Singleton said.
After graduation students are often saddled with loans. The Institute for College Access and Success indicates that in 2013 seven in 10 new college graduates had student loans nationwide. The average debt — $28,400.
“Student debt is crushing the ability I think personally for our economy as a whole to move forward. Young men and women when they’re out of college have to go back and pay all these student loans. They’re not able to buy cars, and buy homes and keep those dollars moving in our economy,” Singleton said.
When asked about what the feedback from colleges and universities in the state has been, Singleton said, “It’s been a mixed bag to be fair.”
The Association of Independent Colleges and Universities in New Jersey says that they continually strive to keep costs down and while they applaud Assemblyman Singleton’s efforts to make college more affordable they add:
“Including independent colleges with the public colleges in the goal of offering a $10,000 BA degree is not realistic when one compares the $1 million in direct support we receive to the nearly $1.5 billion for public four-year colleges. Our colleges provide over $650 million in institutional grants to students that when combined with state Tuition Aid Grants and federal Pell grants results in the majority of students actually paying much less than the listed tuition and fees. In fact, there are many students at our colleges that actually pay less than $10,000 in tuition and fees.”
Singleton says colleges and universities can explore advancing online learning among other things.
“Looking at competency based degrees essentially is what the $10,000 degree is rather than worrying about how much time you’re spending in a classroom getting three credits at a time. Base it on the ability of folks to matriculate as they’ve learned material,” Singleton said.
The measure has already passed the Assembly Higher Education Committee. There’s an identical bill in the Senate that’s waiting to be heard in committee.
Related: WPU President: $10,000 Degree Program May Not Work for All