Lt. Gov. Sheila Simon supports government efforts to make college and community college tuition affordable.

Today, Simon will visit Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, where she will present a plan to stop rising tuition costs.

She says state and federal officials must work together on the issue.

Simon’s office says college tuition and fee increases have outpaced inflation. She cites a Pew Research Center report that found students amassed an average of $26,000 in student loans in 2010.

Simon says college can’t “be accessible only to the privileged, when it is a prerequisite for a good-paying job here in Illinois.”

Simon plans to visit all of the state’s public universities, as she visited all of the state’s community colleges.

(Posted 10-15-2012 at 9:15am, Illinois Radio Network)