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# CCCS tuition is up 5% this fall. Here’s what that means for your bill
- URL: https://www.readfoxtalk.com/cccs-tuition-is-up-5-this-fall-heres-what-that-means-for-your-bill/
- Published: 2026-08-17T22:52:52.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-17T23:10:43.000Z
- Description: For Colorado residents taking standard on-campus classes, the amount left to pay after the state’s College Opportunity Fund rose from $175 to $183.75 per credit. That is $262.50 more over 30 credits, before fees and other financial aid.
- Author: Andy Green
- Tags: News

If you are taking standard on-campus classes at a Colorado Community College System college this fall, the standard resident tuition amount you pay is **$8.75 more per credit** than it was last year.

The [2026-27 tuition schedule](https://ccaurora.edu/admission-aid/financial-aid/office-of-the-cashier/tuition-and-fees?ref=readfoxtalk.com) at Community College of Aurora lists the resident student amount at $183.75 per credit after the College Opportunity Fund, up from [$175 per credit](https://cccs.edu/our-colleges/making-college-affordable?ref=readfoxtalk.com) in 2025-26\. That is a 5% increase.

That standard $183.75 rate applies across CCCS’s [13 colleges](https://cccs.edu/our-colleges/colleges/?ref=readfoxtalk.com), although fees and some online or specialized program rates can differ by college or program.

For 15 credits, that works out to **$131.25 more in base tuition** for the semester. Over 30 credits, the difference is **$262.50**.

Those numbers are not necessarily your final bill. Colleges can charge additional course or student fees, and grants or scholarships can lower what you pay.

### Why is it a 5% increase?

The College Opportunity Fund, or COF, is state money that covers part of tuition for eligible Colorado students.

The full listed resident tuition price went from **$291 to $299.75 per credit**, an increase of about 3%. But the COF amount shown in both years is **$116 per credit**.

That leaves the student paying $175 last year and $183.75 this year. The amount left for the student went up 5%.

The 5% figure also needs one important distinction. The gross standard resident tuition rate before COF rose from $291 to $299.75 per credit, about 3%. The COF amount shown in both years’ schedules is $116 per credit, so the amount left for the student rises from $175 to $183.75, or 5%.

### Why could CCCS tuition rise more than at most four-year colleges?

Colorado’s [2026-27 state budget](https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/HB26-1410?ref=readfoxtalk.com) allowed CCCS to raise resident undergraduate tuition by as much as **5%** this year. The budget used **3.5% as the default for most of the state’s other public colleges**, although it included several exceptions.

JB Holston, executive director of the Colorado Department of Higher Education, told me in a July 24 interview that community colleges had wanted the additional flexibility because they start from a lower price point, face financial pressure and want to offer more programs.

“Some of them are expensive,” Holston said. “If you’re going to do nursing or anything that requires anything trade-related, anything engineering related, those are very expensive kind of programs to provide.”

Holston’s comments describe his explanation for why community colleges wanted more flexibility. They do not establish that the additional $8.75 per credit is earmarked for nursing, trades or engineering-related programs.

Holston also said in July that being allowed to raise tuition 5% did not necessarily mean colleges would use the full increase.

“But again, the permission to raise rates doesn’t mean that the institutions or the systems will necessarily raise those rates,” he said.

The current tuition schedules show that CCCS did use the full 5% increase for the standard resident amount students pay after COF.

Under the [State Board’s tuition policy](https://cccs.edu/about/governance/policies-procedures/bp-4-20-student-tuition-and-fees-scholarships?ref=readfoxtalk.com), tuition rates are approved each year by the State Board for Community Colleges and Occupational Education.

CCCS did not respond by publication time to questions about why the system used the full 5% increase and what costs the additional tuition revenue is expected to help cover.

For students, the simplest number is **$8.75 more per credit** at the standard resident on-campus rate. Your actual bill can be different once fees and financial aid are included.