Who pays the difference between in-state tuition and out of state tuition?

Question

when you get to be an in state student?

one year you are paying 10,000 and another 3,000 dollars, how is that possible? who pays that difference, or why they do that, or is it done not to stimulate migration of student from one state to another? Please help I need to know, I am going to UNO ( University of New Orleans) and trying to get aproved for an in state tuition.

Answer 1

I can't imagine how this knowledge will help with your practical problem, but:

1. In-state tuition is invariably LOWER than out-of-state, as you apparently know since you're trying to get it. That would stimulate students to NOT leave their home state, as any UNO student should be able to deduce. (The preference given to out-of-state students for admission, in order to diversify the student body--and increase the total tuition paid--works the opposite way. Scholarship arrangements may also do so. But that's not what you asked about.)

2. The taxpayers pay for the difference, along with voluntary donors to the basically state-supported school. The assumption, of course, is that the student's parents have been paying state taxes for some minimum period, and possibly all their lives, or that the student him or herself has paid taxes, and have thus already made some contribution--so it's fair to give the kid a break.

Incidentally, http://www.kidsource.com/kidsource/content2/preparing/pt4.html confirms what I'd assumed: Private schools all "charge the same tuition for both in-State and out-of-State students."

Answer 2

Public state schools get money from state taxes. Usually property taxes.

The argument is that if you live in a state and therefore directly or indirectly (via renting) pay property tax, and since that tax pays for education, you deserve to get a break on the costs at those instate schools.

If you come from another state, while you have supported the schools in that state, you haven't paid anything towards the schools in this new state, so you have to pay the real full cost.

It's not a perfect system, but on average it works out.