Parents are shuddering as the University of South Carolina raises rates again.

No wonder.

While tuition, food, room and other costs skyrocket, the university complains that state lawmakers don’t give them enough money.

Yet USC is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on private planes where most seats are empty and costs are higher than other travel. These are the findings of an analysis by The State newspaper.

For example, the newspaper found that on August 1, 2016, five USC officials took the school’s 5-ton Beechcraft King Air equipped with twin 1,000-horsepower propellers from the Owens downtown airport to visit the Aiken and Beaufort campuses.

They saved 12 minutes and spent $400 flying to Aiken.

Their round trip cost 12 times as much as driving.

Since 2013, USC spent $1.97 million on the Beech-craft for its administrators.

“It’s the most efficient use of staff time,” USC spokesman Wes Hickman said.

In contrast, House Speaker Jay Lucas drives throughout the state and does not take the state’s plane.

USC has two nine-seat Beechcraft King Air 350s.

USC’s other plane is used for athletics but both planes are often used for recruiting, flight logs show.

The planes frequently fly less than 150 miles.

USC President Harris Pastides’ flight to Kingstree took 18 minutes and cost $610.

Pastides was the only passenger. The hour drive would have cost $51.

“What does the university administration need a plane for?” asked Ashley Landess, president of the SC Policy Council, a limited-government watchdog. “What is so important that a university administrator needs to reach a place in 30 minutes?”

Said Chronicle reader Elizabeth Lindler, “Students and their parents are having to dig a lot deeper in their pockets to attend this great educational institution that only has one thing on their mind – look good and the heck with what really matters – their students.”