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Santayana) once observed: If we cannot remember the past, we are condemned to repeat it.
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• The Daily Republic, Mitchell, April 20, 2013
• South Dakota's college costs keep climbing
• The good news is that college graduates earn more money over their lifetimes with a degree than high school graduates without a college diploma. The bad news is the cost of getting that university degree keeps climbing.
• The Board of Regents approved tuition increases at the state's six public universities of an average of 4.4 percent.
• At South Dakota School of Mines & Technology, the annual tuition and fees will increase 7 percent to $9,083, and at Black Hills State University, tuition and fees will go up 4.1 percent to $7,617.
• The tuition increases will cover inflation and salary increases approved by the Legislature.
• Regents President Kathryn Johnson said increasing costs in the university system necessitated the change. "Our priority remains the affordability of a quality college education for our students," Johnson said in a prepared statement.
• The rising cost of a college education is not a South Dakota phenomenon; college tuition is increasing everywhere.
• In the past 10 years, the average in-state tuition and fees at South Dakota's four-year institutions have risen from $4,449 in 2002-2003 to $6,655 in 2011-2012, an increase of 49.6 percent.
• The average tuition increase nationally is 40.3 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Education.
• Meanwhile, the inflation rate since 2003 has been 26.2 percent. With tuition costs increasing at almost double the inflation rate, no wonder a college education is becoming less affordable.
• Still, a college degree from a South Dakota university remains a better bargain than in most states. According to CNNMoney.com, the average in-state tuition nationally is $8,665 per year, or about $2,000 higher than in South Dakota.
• It is no less true in South Dakota as in other states that attending a college in your home state is cheaper than going to school in another state and paying out-of-state tuition.
• However, South Dakota is second in the nation with 76 percent of its students graduating from college with student loan debt -- an average of $24,200. Coupled with high interest rates on federal student loans -- that are set by Congress -- stu

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