Tuition to attend TCU: $22,980. Estimated annual textbook cost: $810. Room and board: $4,320. Having to pay $20 for a new ID card: What a sham.With more than $28,110 in estimated annual costs, it seems TCU administrators are still trying to squeeze more blood from the stone.

The ID center recently raised the cost for purchasing a replacement ID from $10 to $20.

Shouldn’t there be something that doesn’t increasingly cost more at TCU?

For many students, the IDs are a necessity for both dining and dormitory access. Do you suppose the ID center has realized the need for these little plastic cards and exploited the supply-and-demand economics of the situation?

Emily Burgwyn, director of the ID center, said the reasoning for the increase stemmed from the apparent lack of respect for the IDs themselves. Students didn’t mind losing IDs as long as it only cost $10 to get a new one.

Burgwyn also said it doesn’t cost the ID center $20 to make an ID. Ten dollars may be a justifiable amount to replace a card, but raising it to try and keep people respectful isn’t something you’d see businesses do.

Should you lose your ATM card, Bank of America will replace it free of charge. You must wait about a week for the new card to arrive in your mailbox, but the wait is the only discomfort not an unreasonably priced replacement fee.

The ID center should follow Bank of America’s example and let students replace lost cards for free. At $10, it was already too much for a misplaced ID, but $20 is an outrageous charge for one person’s moment of forgetfulness.

Stuff happens, and the ID center can’t expect students not to occasionally lose their IDs, but the high cost of replacing ID cards is not the right approach by the university to get even more money out of students.

If administrators find that the student body is willing to shell out $20, what’s to stop them from upping the cost once again?

Sports editor Michael Dodd for the editorial board.