Face the State asserted tuition "still cheap in-state" in misleading headline linking to article about rising CSU costs

Summary: A misleading February 12 headline on the "news" website Face the State linked to a Fort Collins Coloradoan article about Gov. Bill Ritter's (D) speech to Colorado State University student leaders and asserted that "Ritter grandstands on college tuition, but it's still cheap in-state." In fact, the newspaper article never addressed the matter of whether in-state tuition was "still cheap," but quoted CSU's student body president regarding students' concerns over "the rising cost of tuition."

On February 12, the "news" website Face the State linked to a Fort Collins Coloradoan article with the misleading headline "Ritter grandstands on college tuition, but it's still cheap in-state." Contrary to the headline, in its February 12 article about an address Gov. Bill Ritter (D) delivered to Colorado State University (CSU) student leaders, the Coloradoan reported that CSU student body president Katie Gleeson stated that "she and other students have concern over the rising cost of tuition," and quoted her as saying, "We hear from a lot of students who are concerned about the increases of tuition that come each year." Further, the article did not address the issue of whether Colorado's in-state college tuition was "still cheap."

From the February 12 Fort Collins Coloradoan article "Ritter tells students affordable tuition important but offers no guarantees":

DENVER -- Gov. Bill Ritter wouldn't say on Monday how much tuition might increase at Colorado State University this year, but he did say keeping higher education affordable is a priority of his administration.

Ritter, a CSU graduate, told 40 CSU student leaders that funding higher education continues to be important but, with current constitutional funding requirements and restrictions in place, getting at the $840 million needed to catch up with peer states will be hard.

"Last year, we know there was a significant increase in tuition partly because we needed to get to a place where we were charging the same amount as (institutions) in peer states," Ritter said of the 2007 tuition increase that was as high as 17 percent for some students.

In 2006-07, in-state tuition at CSU was $1,732.94 per semester for a full-time student. This year, tuition was raised to $2,020 per semester.

The increase was more than some expected because the state allowed CSU to increase the maximum credits it can charge for from nine to 12.

After constitutional requirements are met, the state is spending 60 percent of its "discretionary spending" on higher education, Ritter told students adding that under his administration the state saw a larger funding increase for higher education than to prisons for the first time "in recent memory."

CSU student body president Katie Gleeson said she and other students have concern over the rising cost of tuition.

"The cost of attending CSU is going up, whether it is tuition, student fees or other areas," Gleeson said from the Capitol. "We hear from a lot of students who are concerned about the increases of tuition that come each year." [emphasis added]

Face the State describes itself as "the 'go-to' news resource for Coloradans interested in state and local politics." As Colorado Media Matters has documented repeatedly, Face the State frequently publishes misleading headlines on its aggregated news articles, uses the noun "Democrat" ungrammatically as an adjective, and makes other distortions that advance conservative viewpoints and denigrate liberal positions and political figures.

—E.B.