In regard to Art Petersen’s letter of last week regarding Arizona university costs, the figures in the ad about Fred Duval’s complicity in raising tuition are correct.

The recession reduced state revenues and the correct result was to reduce spending at the state level. However, universities didn’t reduce enough short to mid-term spending to hold tuition flat. The result was Arizona had the highest increase in the nation for in-state tuition from 2008-12.

Much of this increase was offset by university presidents’ claims that grants, scholarships and other financial help were increasing to offset the higher cost. Approximately half of ASU in-state students pay zero tuition.

So what’s bad about that? Mr. Duval’s approach funded these freebies on middle class students’ backs. Our ASU senior son has been working 25-40 hours/week every month for the past four years to stay out of debt.

Yet Fred Duval doesn’t believe low-income students are capable of the same, so he’s quite willing to load debt on the middle class to fund this out-of- control spiral.

We’ve lived these facts and have performed our own research. For an eye-opener about the recent Starbucks-ASU “feel-good” story, I suggest this article as a start in order to begin to peel back the onion of truth about Arizona university funding: Coffee and Cronyism: Guess Who’s Really Paying for Starbucks ‘Free Tuition’ http://blog.acton.org/archives/70059-coffee-cronyism-guess-whos-really-paying-starbucks-free-tuition.html

As a proud W.P. Carey MBA alumnus, I know where to follow the money, and it’s coming out of the middle class’ future, thanks to Fred Duval. It is time to teach financial discipline to Arizona’s university executives, and quit relying on lobbyists to represent us.