Starting this summer students at Central Oregon Community College will have to pay more for their education.
The school’s board has voted to raise tuition $8 per credit.
That decision made official what administrators had been anticipating for some time.
COCC President James Middleton says a reduction in state funding, coupled with declining property tax revenues left the board with nothing but tough choices.
“There’s really no place else to go besides cutting services or looking at some tuition fee increases."
Rather than cutting, the board chose the latter. A typical COCC student will now pay somewhere around $350 more each year. Projected annual tuition for an in-district student is just under $4000.
Still, Middleton says COCC remains among the top-three community colleges in the state in terms of affordability.
Nearly all of Oregon’s community colleges have either already raised their tuition or are considering doing so.
Most recently, the President of Mt. Hood Community College proposed raising tuition there by $5 per credit.
