Financial aid figures supplied by Kansas University officials and reported in Monday’s Journal-World provide a pretty rosy picture.

According to KU’s figures, student aid has increased from $115 million in 2003 to $147 million in 2005, an increase of about 28 percent.

The only problem is that base KU tuition for a Kansas resident taking 15 hours has risen from $2,921 per year in 2002-03 to $4,824 in 2005-06, an increase of about 65 percent.

Several additional factors also need to be considered. Tuition in 2002-03 already was an increase of about 25 percent from the previous year, as KU initiated a five-year tuition increase that will about double tuition for Kansans attending the university. For the last four years, basic tuition at KU has risen by 25 percent, 20 percent, 18 percent and 16 percent, respectively. The goal is for a full-time Kansas resident student to be paying tuition of $5,123 per year by next year.

During that time, KU officials heavily touted the fact that 20 percent of the increase would be dedicated to additional financial aid, but it doesn’t take a mathematician to figure out that, at that rate, financial aid isn’t going to keep up. It should surprise no one that KU’s Office of Financial Aid is reporting that applications for aid have gone from 15,700 in 2001-2002 to almost 23,000 in 2004-05.

It’s also notable that, although funding for tuition grants has risen significantly, the overall financial aid figures include loans that students will have to repay after they leave school. Too many young people are graduating with enough debt to be a substantial burden as they enter the working world.

On top of the tuition increases, a number of KU schools, claiming their needs justify special funding, have begun to charge “differential tuition,” basically a surcharge on classes taken in their schools. The KU schools of business, fine arts, education, engineering, law, pharmacy, journalism and architecture have added a surcharge.

Pharmacy and law are the highest at $120 and $117 per hour respectively. Among the other schools, additional fees range from $64 per hour in business to $12.50 in journalism.

Student fees also add an additional $589 a year to the cost of attending KU.

There are, of course, some valid arguments for increased tuition. At least at the start of the five-year plan, tuition at KU was well below that of its peer institutions in other states. The tuition increases also have allowed the university to hire new faculty, upgrade its technology and provide much-needed salary increases for some faculty and staff.

But there is no doubt that some Kansas students and their families are finding it more difficult to afford a university education. The tuition increases benefit the university, but the bottom line is that a 28 percent increase in financial aid balanced against a 65 percent increase in base tuition will tip the scales against some deserving students – a circumstance that should be of concern to university leaders, state lawmakers and Kansas residents.