Report: R.I. one of least affordable states to attend college

A NEW REPORT published by the Institute for Research on Higher Education at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education ranked Rhode Island as the 48th least affordable state to attend college; It said families spend on average 60 percent of annual income to pay for full-time attendance. / COURTESY UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA GRADUATE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
A NEW REPORT published by the Institute for Research on Higher Education at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education ranked Rhode Island as the 48th least affordable state to attend college; It said families spend on average 60 percent of annual income to pay for full-time attendance. / COURTESY UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA GRADUATE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION

PROVIDENCE – A report published by the Institute for Research on Higher Education at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education ranked Rhode Island as the 48th least affordable state to attend college, the university announced Wednesday.

In the Penn GSE study, which outlines how higher education has become increasingly unaffordable, the Ocean State’s ranking was determined when college costs were measured against family income levels in the state.

Rhode Island is home to some of the most affordable private research institutions and public, four-year, non-doctoral colleges in the country; yet Penn GSE found full-time students enrolled at private, four-year, non-doctoral colleges in Rhode Island, which make up 39 percent of the state’s higher education population, would have to work almost 80 hours each week to pay off their tuition bills.

The study found Rhode Island families, on average, spend 60 percent of their family income for attendance at this type of institution.

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Families in Rhode Island earning more than $110,000 only pay 20 percent of yearly family income to attend an in-state private, four-year non-doctoral college full-time or 6 percent to attend an in-state public, two-year college full time.

However, Rhode Island families earning less than $30,000 annually would face paying 139 percent of their annual income to attend an in-state private, four-year non-doctoral college full-time. Whereas they would only pay 30 percent of the family income to attend an in-state public, two-year college full-time.

This isn’t just a small portion of Rhode Islanders either, as the Penn GSE study found one in five Rhode Island children in live in poverty.

As of 2014, only 43 percent of working-age Rhode Islanders, 25 to 64, had an associate’s degree or higher, yet the study estimated by 2020 more than 70 percent of jobs will require a higher education degree.

Of that 43 percent, on average, white people make up 47 percent of the Rhode Island population with an associate’s degree or higher with Hispanics reaching 19 percent and African Americans representing 28 percent.

According to Penn GSE, in order to support itself by 2020, the state will need 28 percent more working-age residents with an associate’s degree or higher.

University of Pennsylvania’s Director of the Institute for Research on Higher Education Joni Finney said “the deck is stacked against low- and middle-income Americans.”

“Without policy changes, the data point toward a problem that will only worsen. That paints a bleak picture for millions of Americans,” she added.
The Penn GSE report found that college is less affordable than it was in 2008 in states across the nation.

In national rankings Alaska ranked first in affordability while Connecticut placed 21st, Maine placed 42nd, Massachusetts placed 43rd, Vermont placed 46th, and New Hampshire came in last place at 50th – the least affordable state to attend college in the United States.

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