Back in November, College Insurrection reported that Texas Governor Rick Perry was looking into the idea of a $10,000 college degree. That idea is now catching on in other states.

Valerie Taylor of the College Fix reports.

$10K Baccalaureate Degree Movement Nears Critical Mass

Fueled by massive student debt nationwide, the Great Recession, and politicians willing to make it a priority, the so-called $10K-B.A. appears unstoppable.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott recently announced all 23 Florida College System institutions in his state that offer baccalaureate degrees plan to create four-year programs that cost no more than $10,000.

Underscoring that, several colleges in Texas are working to undertake similar measures, and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is pushing the plan hard in his state while a California legislator has called for a $10,000 baccalaureate degree program for the West Coast as well.

“It is important our students can get an affordable education, and our state colleges have stepped up to the challenge to find innovative ways to provide a quality education at a great value,” Scott said when he announced the news on Jan. 28. “Our goal should be that students do not have to go into debt in order to obtain a degree.”

The movement is fueled by several factors, including “ballooning student loan debt, an impending college bubble, and a return on the bachelor’s degree that is flat or falling,” notes Arthur Brooks, president of the American Enterprise Institute and a former professor at Syracuse University, in a Jan. 31 New York Times op-ed.

Brooks cites data from the National Center for Education Statistics that the national annual average tuition for a four-year private university is nearly $33,000, and notes while the median inflation-adjusted household income fell by 7 percent between 2006 and 2011, the average tuition at public four-year colleges increased over that period by more than 18 percent.

In lobbying for the movement, Brooks said he is a product of a $10,000 undergraduate education.