BOSTON — The expense of college keeps spiraling ever higher, correct?

Not necessarily. recent research indicates students are paying significantly less to attend community universities than they were a decade ago. And tuition increases at private colleges have finally slowed after years of hefty rises.

Figures compiled by the nonprofit College Board indicate the average learner attending an in-state community university this year faces a tuition statement of $11,610, which is down 4% from a decade earlier when taking worth rise into account. But the real reserves arrive in what the average learner actually pays after getting grants and monetary aid. That’s down 40% over the decade, from $4,140 to $2,480 annually, according to the data.

That reduced expense means less borrowing. Just under half of students attending in-state community universities are graduating with some debt, down from 59% a decade earlier, according to the College Board figures. And among those who do borrow, the average borrowing equilibrium has fallen by 17%, to $27,100.

Meanwhile, at private colleges, tuition continues to rise, but at a much slower rate. It has increased 4% over the history decade, when taking worth rise into account, to an average $43,350, according to the College Board. That’s a large transformation from the two decades prior, when tuition increased 68%.

Costs are coming down as Americans question whether college is worth the worth. Surveys discover that Americans are increasingly skeptical about the worth of a degree, and the percentage of high school graduates heading to college has fallen to levels not seen in decades, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Yet research still finds that, over period, a degree pays off. Americans with a bachelor’s degree earn a median of $2.8 million during their careers, 75% more than if they had only a high school diploma, according to research from Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a large factor in the expense reductions, said Jennifer Ma, an executive research scientist at the College Board and navigator author of the study.

“We recognize that during COVID, a lot of institutions — community and private — froze tuition,” Ma said.

As states and the federal government responded to the pandemic, Ma said, they increased higher education financing, allowing colleges to reduce the expense of attendance. Some of that money has since expired, however, including an infusion of federal pandemic aid that was mostly used up by the complete of 2022.

expense was a major consideration in Kai Mattinson’s selection to attend Northern Arizona University. It would have expense her about $39,000 annually to attend the community university but discounts and scholarships bring that down to between $15,000 and $20,000 for the 22-year-ancient elder from Nevada.

“I originally wanted to leave to the University of Arizona, but when it came down to tuition and other expense, Northern Arizona University was the best alternative,” said Mattinson, a physical education major who also works as a long-term substitute at a local elementary school.

Many institutions have tried to limit expense increases. Purdue University in Indiana, for example, has frozen its annual in-state tuition at $9,992 for the history 13 years.

Mark Becker, the president of the Association of community and Land-grant Universities, said he was pleased to view the recent data.

“Institutional efforts to control costs, combined with many states’ efforts to boost investments in community universities and federal stake distribution in the Pell Grant, have increased college affordability and enabled significant advancement on tackling learner debt,” Becker said in a statement.

Costs for those attending community two-year throng colleges have fallen even more, by 9% over the history decade, according to the College Board data, which is broadly in line with federal figures collected by the National Center for Education Statistics.

Still, for parents paying for their children to attend out-of-state community universities or private colleges, the costs remain daunting — as much as $95,000 annually, in some cases. However, many institutions propose significant discounts to the sticker worth for middle- and lower-profits students.

Some private colleges have been expanding their monetary aid, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which in November announced undergraduates with a household profits below $200,000 would no longer require to pay any tuition at all starting in the fall.

Other private colleges are discounting tuition as a marketing shift in an increasingly challenging surroundings. They face a dwindling pool of youthful adults, and students who are more wary of signing up for giant loans. Recruiting students is crucial for staying afloat as operational costs rise. After temporary relief thanks to federal money during the pandemic, many colleges have cut programs to try to keep costs under control.

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Associated Press writer Collin Binkley contributed to this update from Washington, D.C. Mumphrey reported from Phoenix.