For Montanans preparing to start college this fall, an interactive online Tuition Tracker can help them figure out some of the costs ahead of time.

The tool can be especially useful to those attending college for the first time.

The Tuition Tracker lets a student calculate the real costs - by seeing not only the published tuition, but the cost of other needs, showing them what they might end up actually paying.

Andrew Koricich, executive director of the Alliance for Research on Regional Colleges, said a tool like this can be helpful for students in rural areas.

"Whenever you have rural students," said Koricich, "many of whom are still going to be the first in their families to go to college, maybe coming from communities where there aren't a lot of folks with college experience - tools like the Tuition Tracker can be really important."

The tool also allows students to compare colleges costs by using their household income, seeing what students like them have paid in the past, and what to expect if they decide to enroll.

It was developed by the online education publication The Hechinger Report.

The latest Tuition Tracker update also shows historical data, such as student retention and graduation rates.

But Koricich said no matter how accurate the data, there many factors that can affect the actual price of college - and it could sometimes be lower than what the tracker reflects.

"It is a very complicated thing that includes a lot of variables," said Koricich, "and so you can have state grant programs that may not be reflected in the net price, even though any in-state student attending that institution will receive that grant."

Koricich recommended doing additional research, including visiting the website of each school the student is interested in to find out more.

Support for this reporting was provided by Lumina Foundation.




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Student parents at New Mexico's community colleges represent a significant portion of the postsecondary population.

And while the state has taken steps to help them, graduation is an uphill climb.

A study across nine New Mexico higher state education institutions by the research center Child Trends, found most parents pursuing an advanced degree are taking six-to-11 credit hours.

The nonprofit's Senior Research Scientist Renee Ryberg said most have more than one child - which means they're balancing kids, academics and a job.

"Three-quarters of them are working, and to make all that fit in the 24 hours in a day," said Ryberg, "they're going to school largely part-time - 85% are pursuing degrees and certificates."

Ryberg said almost 60% of student parents work at least 30 hours a week.

In New Mexico, three-quarters of student parents are mothers and 33% say they have no formal child care, while the same percentage relies on unpaid relatives or friends.

The National Conference of State Legislatures says without access to child care, many student parents may miss classes and drop out.

Ryberg said community colleges offer students higher educational opportunities with less financial strain, more flexible schedules and smaller class sizes.

Currently, tuition and fees for full-time, in-state enrollment at a public two-year college average about $4,000 per year, compared to $11,000 at a public four-year institution.

Nonetheless, Ryberg said many parents, especially women eventually benefit from a few more years in the classroom.

"If that single mom has an associate's degree, she earns $367,000 more across her lifetime," said Ryberg, "and if she has a bachelor's degree, she earns more than $600,000 more across her lifetime than a single mom with a high school degree."

A recent report on best community colleges by the personal finance site, WalletHub, lists Santa Fe Community College and Southeast New Mexico College as 4th and 5th in the nation.

San Juan college nabbed 15th place among the country's top 20.

Support for this reporting was provided by Lumina Foundation.




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A new partnership is making it easier for students at Dallas College to transfer to a four-year university.

The college has joined forces with Texas A-and-M University-Commerce, Texas Woman's University and the University of North Texas-Dallas to form the Dallas Transfer Collaborative.

Justin Lonon, chancellor of Dallas College, said a new hub connects all four institutions to a centralized portal, streamlining the transfer process.

"It also provides technology that will allow students to go, 'Hey, you know, here are the courses I've taken at Dallas College,' and here's how those courses will plug into the broad array of programs at these universities," Lonon outlined.

The program is partially funded by the Commit Partnership's Opportunity 2040 Fund, which aims to reduce child poverty in Dallas County by half and double the number of young adults making a living wage.

More than 64,000 students are enrolled in the seven Dallas College campuses. Lonon explained they hope the hub will help more of those students continue their education after leaving community college.

"Nearly half of our students come to us and say they have an intent to transfer but only about one in four does so over a three-year time period," Lonon pointed out. "There can be many reasons for that but what we don't want for there to be institutional barriers between our university partners."

Lonon noted they hope to add more universities to the group and the program will be a model for other universities across the nation.


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Idaho faces a shortage of health care workers. Technology could help the state attract and retain more doctors and nurses.

The Gem State has the fewest doctors per capita of any state in the country.

The up-and-coming health care workforce could benefit from technology's integration into education, especially in rural states like Idaho - said Dr. Teresa Conner, the former dean of Idaho State University's College of Health.

"Recruiting our own and training people in their communities where they've grown up and they love the community," said Conner, "they have ties, and technology's really helping us address that equation of how to get providers into rural communities through, really, the resource they already have - their people."

Conner is now dean of the College of Health and Human Sciences at North Dakota State University.

She said expanded communication technologies help people across vast distances connect, enabling remote learning in rural places.

Conner said another important technology is simulations.

She said while she was at Idaho State University, grant funding from the Idaho Workforce Development Council and Portneuf Health Trust helped expand these tools.

Conner said these are going to be important to health care education.

"One of the great parts about this is it creates a safe failure," said Conner. "So it's okay in a simulation if they get the wrong answer or they fail because no one gets harmed. And then they can debrief and learn from that mistake."

Conner said simulation technology also could help with the biggest bottleneck in health care education, which is the limited number of clinical placements.

She noted that this technology won't replace real-world education, but she said it does provide an opportunity to show students important situations they might not see during their clinical experience.

"Through simulation," said Conner, "we can make sure that students are exposed to a range of different kinds of cases that we want all of them exposed to."

Support for this reporting was provided by Lumina Foundation.




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