Tough Numbers

Tim Young, a former member of the Oregon State Board of Higher Education, has a nice editorial at the Oregonian's online "Stump" blog. I was particularly captivated by the first paragraph, which with just a few numbers helps distill one aspect of our money woes:

Adjusted for inflation from 1995 to 2006, the state of Oregon's support of direct educational costs at its public universities dropped by an average, or mean, of 29 percent, a loss of $1,630.86 per full-time student. During the same time, student tuition rose on average $1,894.86 per full-time student, a73.48 percent increase.

Ouch.

The whole article is worth a read, so go have a look.