http://www.azcentral.com/families/education/articles/0329board0329.html

Tuition hiked 8.5% at county colleges Increase is $5 per credit hour

Laura Houston The Arizona Republic Mar. 29, 2006 12:00 AM

Tuition will go up by $5 per credit hour for most of the Maricopa Community College District's roughly 250,000 students.

The 10-college district's governing board on Tuesday approved the 8.5 percent increase to help ease the strain of growing enrollment numbers on resources, faculty and facilities.

Full-time, in-state community college students next year will pay $1,950 in annual tuition and fees, up from $1,800 this year.

In the first year, the boost would give the district an additional $11.4 million from resident students, $900,000 from out-of-state students and $3.5 million in registration fees, said Gaye Murphy, associate vice chancellor of business services for the district.

Governing board member Jerry Walker cast the only vote against the tuition hike, saying, "It would be inappropriate to put a tuition increase in the way it had been described."

Tuition makes up about one-quarter of the district's total funding, with property taxes supporting about 57 percent of its annual budget.

State aid and other sources rounded out the remaining funds.

In 2004, county voters approved a $951 million bond to fund expansion projects and build new MCCD campuses.

In anticipation of district growth, the fiscal 2007 budget grew by more than 35 percent to a total of $1.476billion.

Much of the increases come from building costs, Murphy said.

Also on Tuesday, the board decided to collaborate with Glendale, Surprise, Avondale and Peoria to create a Regional Public Safety Training Center, which would prepare law enforcement officers and firefighters.

Other decisions the board took up included approval of dual enrollment agreements between colleges and students from public, private and charter high schools.