Meanwhile, at CUNY the cost of education is also going up for students, Fernández said. “Whenever there is an economic crunch, tuition is raised.” While that tuition will inevitably increase over time, administrators and leaders are challenged with keeping college affordable and maintaining their faculty and infrastructure.
Since minorities often choose the more affordable route of attending a two-year college first, Castillo suggested that one way to increase the number of Hispanics receiving bachelor’s degrees is to work with the state and community college systems to ease the transition. “It has to be a statewide issue,” he said.
Improving accountability is a critical means of showing the public how tax dollars are being spent and imploring the government for further support, Castillo said. Fernández reiterated the importance of traditional means of support, such as the presidential duty of collecting funds through philanthropy and fundraising as a way to counterbalance the increasing burden on students.
But Castillo underscored the importance of overcoming legislative impediments, or what he called “legislation by anecdote.” Too often legislators address problems with “bad legislation” that is propelled by hearsay rather than data, Castillo said, concluding that to address the issue of affordability, “We need another equivalent to the GI bill.”
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