Tuition And Fees

Members of the Maryland Association of Certified Public Accountants are answering readers' tax questions through April 15. Here, MACPA members answer some basic questions.What is the Lifetime Learning Credit?The Lifetime Learning Credit is equal to 20 percent of the first $5,000 of qualified educational expenses paid after June 30, 1998. There is a maximum of $1,000 per taxpayer return. Qualified tuition and fees for this credit include amounts paid for undergraduate or graduate-level courses, including professional degree courses.

Affording college tuition not an impossible dreamI must take issue with the substance and the implications of Denis Horgan's column on college tuition ("Anxiety about college costs rising," Sept. 2).Families already have an inaccurate view of the affordability and accessibility of college, and are not aware of the options available to them in choosing and paying for an appropriate college.Unfocused and inaccurate diatribes like Mr. Horgan's column only increase the number of students who will walk away from a college education because they are convinced it is out of their reach.

I'VE GOTTEN a letter from a frustrated parent, Burton C. Bradshaw Jr., a machinist working for Union Camp Corp. in Franklin, Va.He's rounding up college money for his daughter, who wants to study clinical psychology. She'll attend James Madison College in Harrisonburg, Va. For state residents, one semester's tuition and fees come to $2,128.Bradshaw writes that he has heard about the new Hope Scholarship, a $1,500 tax credit. But he can't find out how to apply for it and the brochure the college sent him sheds no light.

The University System of Maryland regents yesterday approved increases in tuition and fees for the 1999-2000 academic year, while agreeing to seek a $53 million increase in state funding for the system's 11 campuses next year.Meeting at Bowie State University, the 17-member Board of Regents voted unanimously to raise in-state undergraduate tuition by up to 4 percent, starting in the fall. Smaller mandatory fees will increase by as much as 16.5 percent.The highest tuition will be at the University of Maryland, College Park: $4,050 for the school year.

With her two toddlers not even ready for kindergarten, Kara King-Bess can't wait to sign up for Maryland's new prepaid college tuition program, the state-sponsored savings plan to soften the sticker shock of skyrocketing college costs.King-Bess, a Baltimore accountant and mother of two children, ages 2 and 3, appeared at an Annapolis news conference yesterday launching the prepaid college trust, which was created last year by the General Assembly. The sign-up period for this year runs through June 30.By paying an average $316 a month for each child over the next five years, King-Bess explained, "I can rest easy for the next 10 years knowing they can go to any school in Maryland, and Maryland has some excellent schools."

Two Mount Hebron lacrosse defensemen will be playing locally next season. Mike Machiran has committed to Towson State and Jon Smith to UMBC.Machiran, a 6-foot-1, 185-pounder, plays excellent position defense, a perfect complement to another Vikings defenseman, Mike Stromberg, who signed with Loyola last week.Smith is a 6-3, 190-pounder who plays close defense.Both played football at Mount Hebron. Machiran, a four-year varsity football player, was a linebacker and tight end; Smith was the quarterback for three seasons.

In an unusual visit, President Clinton will address the Maryland General Assembly on Monday as part of an effort to pitch his budget priorities and domestic agenda for the next four years to state legislatures.It will be the first of what the White House says will be a series of missions to state legislatures. Clinton told the nation's governors last weekend that he would visit capitols in coming months because many of his budget proposals involve items administered by state government. Those proposals include bolstering education, revising welfare rules and restructuring Medicaid.

The General Assembly passed legislation yesterday that would significantly increase state aid for Maryland's community colleges by pegging their subsidy to the level of state funding for the University of Maryland System.State Sen. John A. Cade, a Republican from Anne Arundel County, and Del. Henry B. Heller, a Montgomery County Democrat, sponsored the bill, they said, to make up for years of sluggish increases in state allocations for community colleges. As a consequence, they said, tuition has risen sharply.

Gov. Parris N. Glendening's envisioned scholarship program for middle-class Marylanders is inspired by a highly regarded Georgia initiative that officials there say has helped persuade the state's brightest students to stay at home.Since 1993, Georgia's HOPE scholarship program -- which is even more ambitious than the one Glendening outlined Tuesday -- has paid for the college education of all state high school graduates with a B average who maintain that average during all four years of college.

Let's make a deal.With the cost of a college education escalating and many institutions battling to fill classrooms, financial deals are being offered to students and their families in 1995.Some are as simple as cutting or freezing tuition, while others center on price guarantees for the future. Sometimes an abbreviated time period for graduation provides a financial advantage. In a few cases, there's no tuition at all.The University of Rochester, a private university in Rochester, BTC N.Y., is offering a $5,000 grant toward its $17,840 annual tuition for residents of New York state.

Beginning next month, members of the military who have served on active duty since the attacks on Sept. 11 might be able to take advantage of a new GI Bill that will pick up the tab for a college degree. The Post-9/11 GI Bill can cover up to four years of tuition and fees at a public university and help with the cost of private college. It gives money for books and, in some cases, housing. As part of the military's retention effort, members on active duty can transfer their benefits to a spouse or child.

College tuition is keeping pace with inflation, rising about 6 percent this year, the College Board reported yesterday. But officials warned that tuition could soar as the economy tightens and universities' endowments and state funds shrink. Nationwide, tuition and fees went up 6.4 percent at public four-year universities, to $6,585, and 5.9 percent at private four-year universities, to $25,143, for the current academic year. In Maryland, tuition at state universities has been frozen for the past three years.

The financial freedom that comes with that first real job can be exhilarating. Your own money. Your own apartment. Your own schedule. Your own tax return. Tax return? Yes, at some point you'll face the task of filing your first income tax return, embarking on a lifelong relationship with the IRS. If you're single and a newbie to taxes, here's what you need to know: First, you must file a return if your gross income last year was $8,450 or higher. Your employer by now should have mailed a W-2 form that states your wages and the taxes withheld from your paycheck.

The cost of obtaining a four-year university degree continues to outpace inflation, and in an era of declining federal aid students are increasingly relying on private bank loans to finance their education, the College Board said yesterday. The cost of tuition and fees at four-year public universities rose 6.3 percent from 2005 to 2006, capping an increase of 35 percent over five years, the nonprofit board reported. At the same time, the amount of federal financial aid available through Pell Grants hit a new low, the organization said.

A campaign ad watch in Thursday's editions of The Sun should have included additional data when discussing a television ad for Mayor Martin O'Malley that claims that public school tuition in Maryland increased by 40 percent during Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s term. While the ad watch analysis discussed tuition and fees, tuition alone increased slightly less than 38 percent from 2002 to 2005.

CLARIFICATION A campaign ad watch in Thursday's editions of The Sun should have included additional data when discussing a television ad for Mayor Martin O'Malley that claims that public school tuition in Maryland increased by 40 percent during Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s term. While the ad watch analysis discussed tuition and fees, tuition alone increased slightly less than 38 percent from 2002 to 2005. In the latest television advertisement of his guber natorial campaign, Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Mal ley focuses on the cost of higher education in Maryland and suggests his administration will do more to keep tuition down.

Go to college, parents everywhere tell their kids. Data back up their advice: Workers with four-year degrees earn 62 percent more than high school grads. No wonder more kids are aiming for college. But this flood of aspirants has created a seller's market for public and private schools, one in which there's too little restraint on the price of higher learning. And with ever-rising tuition and too-limited financial aid, family income - not student achievement - persists as too large a factor in determining who makes it to and through college, an unhealthy dynamic for this society.

LOS ANGELES -- As tuition continues to outpace gains in financial aid, students' chances of attending a U.S. college and finishing with a degree increasingly have become linked to their families' income, the College Board reported yesterday. The nonprofit group, in releasing two reports on college costs and financial aid, pointed out big gaps in graduation rates even among students who have high test scores. Those from families with the highest income and education levels finished college at more than double the rate of high-scoring students from the lowest socioeconomic grouping.

Carroll Community College has proposed an operating budget of $18.5 million for the next fiscal year that calls for a 4.5 percent tuition increase, college officials said yesterday. The proposed budget - a $1.2 million increase over this year's - was presented this week to the college's board of trustees. If approved, it would be the 11th straight year of tuition increases at the college. The tuition increase would become effective in June. "We think the tuition increase, while it's something we don't like to do, is a reasonable increase given the education that our students get here," said Alan Schuman, the college's executive vice president of administration.

Carroll Community College has proposed an operating budget of $18.5 million for the next fiscal year that calls for a 4.5 percent tuition increase, college officials said yesterday. The proposed budget - a $1.2 million increase over this year's - was presented this week to the college's board of trustees. If approved, it would be the 11th straight year of tuition increases at the college. The tuition increase would become effective in June. "We think the tuition increase, while it's something we don't like to do, is a reasonable increase given the education that our students get here," said Alan Schuman, the college's executive vice president of administration.