House Republican Press Release

October 29, 2007

Press Office: 860-240-8700

A VIEW FROM THE INSIDE

State Representative Ruth Fahrbach

NEBHE offers tuition assistance for higher education

With the cost of higher education steadily on the rise, sources of tuition assistance have become even more valuable to parents and students alike. One good resource of tuition assistance for Connecticut residents is the Regional Student Program (RSP), which is offered by the New England Board of Higher Education (NEBHE).

Over the last 50 years has helped numerous state residents with tuition assistance. In 2006-07, the program saved 1,000 full-time student participants in Connecticut an average of $7,260.

The RSP provides out-of-state tuition breaks to Connecticut residents who enroll at public colleges and universities in Massachusetts, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire and Rhode Island and pursue approved degree programs that are not offered by public colleges or universities in Connecticut.

According to the NEBHE Web site (www.nebhe.org), there are a number of statistics that support an increasing need for higher education, as well as an increase in financial assistance for college. The group highlighted some of those statistics in its Trends & Indicators in Higher Education, 2007 report:

• Since 1990, New England’s population has grown by just 8 percent, compared with 20 percent for the nation as a whole. And all six New England states are among the bottom 10 nationally in the growth of 18- to 24-year-olds since 1990.

• New England college and university enrollment topped 875,000 in 2005, but the region’s once disproportionate share of total U.S. enrollment continued to drop to 5 percent.

• Nearly half of New England college students attend private institutions compared with about one quarter of college students nationally.

• Total yearly charges for resident students, including room and board, average nearly $40,000 at New England’s private four-year institutions and $18,000 at the region’s public institutions—far above national rates.

• College costs gobble up a large and growing share of family income, especially for low-income New England families.

• Americans pay an average of $242 each in annual state taxes to support public higher education and student aid in their states. New Englanders, however, pay just $177.

• New England universities performed $3.3 billion worth of research and development in 2004, and the region’s share of all U.S. university R&D inched up to 7.7 percent—still a far cry from its 10 percent share in the mid-1980s.

For more information on tuition assistance, go to www.nebhe.org, or call NB=EBHE at (617) 357-9620.

Rep Ruth Fahrbach represents the 61^st District, including Suffield, and parts of Windsor and East Granby, in the General Assembly.