Bill Aims To Keep Tuition Rate Flat For 4 Years
This story was written by Megan Eckstein, The Diamondback
Talk of tuition hikes, tuition freezes and all the ups and downs of state funding for higher education might soon become less of a nagging presence for students.
An impressive 35 delegates are sponsoring a Truth in Tuition Act, which would require the University System of Maryland to announce tuition rates four years in advance, allowing incoming freshmen to plan ahead and know what their tuition will be when they graduate.
"Much like adjustable-rate mortgages are tricky for families, adjustable-rate tuitions are tough for students," said Delegate Heather Mizeur (D-Montgomery), a first-term delegate and the lead sponsor of the bill.
Despite the support within the Maryland House of Delegates for the bill, higher-education administrators are split.
Brit Kirwan, the university system's chancellor, said the bill doesn't mesh well with the current budget process and could compromise the quality of universities throughout the state.
"I feel that the bill is very well-intentioned, but I have grave concerns about its practicality," he said.
Kirwan said the university system waits to find out how much money will come from state coffers from each year before setting tuition to make up the rest of the budget.
Under the proposed law, tuition would be locked in before the system could determine what its financial needs are. That may force cuts that could jeopardize the quality of education at state institutions, Kirwan said.
He said to maintain the quality of the universities, the system might have to set tuition higher than necessary just in case state funding is lower than expected, placing more of the financial burden on the students.
Mizeur disagreed with this logic, saying the real goal of the bill is to serve as "backdoor pressure on the General Assembly to properly fund higher education."
"Politically, the football gets punted to us to provide enough funds," Mizeur said, because no state legislature wants to appear stingy on higher education funding.
University President Dan Mote has been pushing for a similar four-year planning model for years but doesn't want to see legislation rushed.
"We have high confidence this system would work because it worked so well in other states," Mote said.
Still, Mote would rather wait for a state commission studying long-term funding models for the university system to come out with its report in December. Then, he said, the plan should move forward in a pilot stage.
Mizeur is pushing hard for the Truth in Tuition bill nonetheless. She worked two jobs to put herself through school at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and she said she constantly worried a tuition hike would push school beyond her reach. Shortly after she graduated, Illinois passed a Truth in Tuition bill that Mizeur said "worked to great acclaim in Illinois," and middle-class families "benefited from the predictability that legislation like this brings."
Kirwan said that he would be willing to reach some sort of compromise, ideally if an escape clause were added to the bill. If state funding didn't increase with the rate of inflation or some other agreed upon rate, the school system would be able to increase tuition to cover its costs.
Mizeur said if that was proposed in the Maryland House, she would want the compromise to go both ways; if the state provided extra funding, the system should share the funds by lowering tuition.
© 2008 The Diamondback via U-WIRE