News 12 at 11 o'clock, April 18, 2008

ACROSS GEORGIA---College tuition is going up again, and some local college students say the cost of higher education is getting too high.

Christopher Ham is used to having to do math because he's a business management major at Augusta State.
There's one math problem that hits him right in the wallet.

"It's ridiculous how much we gotta pay for tuition, it's just tuition," he said.

He says when he started school in 2002, he paid about $1200 a semester. This semester he paid about $1600.

"Well it's tough, I only work part-time so it's kinda hard to pay all my bills and pay for school also," he said.

And this coming fall, tuition will go up again in colleges across Georgia. Incoming freshman will see up to an eight percent increase over fall 2007.

"The reason I'm part-time in school right now is because of the tuition prices," said Ashley Black. She's in her second semester at ASU.

She has to pay out-of-pocket and says it's hard in this economy.

"Gas prices, I remember when they were like a $1.19 and that was a lot, let alone $3.20," said Black.

The one piece of good news is students who've enrolled since 2006 will not see an increase. Georgia has a guaranteed tuition plan that keeps the prices locked in for four years.

Ham says the economy can hit you even harder once you graduate.

"I know a lot of people who have a degree still working at like Best Buy or Wal-Mart," Ham said.

ASU President Bill Bloodworth says a slumping economy may actually help enrollment. When there are fewer jobs available, more people tend to go back to school.