The recession has hit many families so hard their kids are either delaying or altering plans to attend college. Grants and financial awards aren’t keeping pace with need, and the administrators and officials who control tuition have provided no relief. In fact, tuitions across the nation continue to go up by five percent or more each year, reports The Associated Press, which notes that elite schools now cost as much as $55,000 a year and state universities clock in around $28,000. Many parents are taking on the debt for their kids or turning to their retirement savings to help.

Meanwhile, Colorado officials are discussing how much tuition local colleges and universities will charge next fall. The Colorado Commission on Higher Education’s deadline for those proposals is today, and a new state law allows institutions to raise undergrad tuition for residents by as much as nine percent for the next five years, according to Ed News Colorado.

But that’s not enough for the state’s flagship public university. The University of Colorado will ask for the option to raise in-state tuition more than nine percent, writes Boulder’s Daily Camera.

“Any plan we submit would simply allow us to preserve our options should things get horrible with the state budget,” says CU system spokesman Ken McConnellogue.

In addition, the director of the state Department of Higher Education, Rico Munn, says colleges could face cuts in state funding, from $705 million this year to $555 million or less next year.