By Sarah Hofius Hall
and Erin Moody
Staff Writers
When students at area colleges arrive on campus this fall, they’ll be paying as much as 10 percent more than it has ever cost to seek a degree in northeastern Pennsylvania.

Area colleges and universities have finalized their rates for the 2008-09 school year, and most students will have to find an additional $1,000 or more to get an education.
In Luzerne County, the highest tuition increase was at Misericordia University, where costs were up 5.5 percent to $23,150. The university is trying to keep tuition low to help students struggling to pay the increasing prices, but it’s a difficult task with economic and political pressures, President Michael MacDowell said.
“The problem with education is it’s a very labor-driven industry and labor costs tend to increase more,” he said. “There’s more and more regulation from the state, which requires more reports and more people.”
Nationwide, schools are expected to increase their tuition 5 percent to 6 percent for 2008-09, according to the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities.
According to the College Board, the average tuition at a private four-year school in 2007-08 was $23,712, a 6.3 percent increase from 2006-07. Average tuition at four-year public schools was $6,185, up 6.6 percent from the previous year. Tuition averages for the 2008-09 school year have yet to be released.
Ongoing increases are the result of the “rising costs of everything,” said Tony Pals, spokesman for the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities.

Inflating costs
Tuition at area schools is increasing faster than the consumer price index, a measure of inflation. For the last year, the index rate was 3.9 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The discrepancy is because the major costs for schools — including technology, utilities and health care and other insurances — also are rising faster than the consumer price index, Pals said.
Wilkes University sophomore Michael Carnevale is struggling with a 4.5 percent increase that will bring his tuition costs for 2008-09 to $25,170. Besides his summer job, he said he’s considering finding part-time work during the fall semester to make sure ends meet.
“I’m trying my best,” he said. “I’m working over the summer five days a week. That’s a lot of money; I don’t even like to think about that.”
While tuition is more expensive than ever before, the percent increases have been lower in the last five years than they have been in any five-year period since 1982. Colleges have made efforts to contain their costs, including joint purchasing with other schools, Pals said.
“What we’re hearing from every parent and every student is greater concern,” he said. They are concerned “where the price of tuition is headed” and have “uncertainty whether institutions are operating as efficiently as they can.”