Plan to Lift Tuition Caps Could Bring Cuts in State Funding

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

>To: StudentTuitionAllianceOSU at yahoogroups.com
>From: Joe Pirone <pirone.4 at osu.edu>
>Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2001 01:12:55 -0400
>Subject: (StudentTuitionAllianceOSU) 4/22 Dispatch article
>
>http://www.dispatch.com/news/news01/apr01/669745.html
>
>Plan to lift tuition caps could bring cuts in state funding
>
>Sunday, April 22, 2001
>
>Alice Thomas
>Dispatch Higher Education Reporter
>
>After years of lobbying to remove state-imposed tuition limits, 
>Ohio's public universities seem poised to claim a victory now that 
>the caps could be coming off.
>
>But any spirit of celebration has been tempered by fear that the 
>state's higher-education budget will be slashed.
>
>And that could mean students and their parents will wind up paying 
>much more to go to college in Ohio, which is already ranked 12th 
>most-expensive in the country.
>
>"Everything's in danger. It's open season,'' said Michael Brown, 
>spokesman for the Ohio Board of Regents.
>
>For the past 15 years, tuition increases at Ohio's public 
>universities have been limited to around 6 percent a year. But the 
>most-recent budget talks among lawmakers include a proposal to throw 
>out the caps beginning in the next fiscal year, which starts July 1.
>
>That would give the go-ahead to universities to raise tuition by as 
>much as they want, meaning consumers might be making up for the loss 
>in tax revenue by paying higher tuition.
>
>"It's all too easy for public policy-makers, or for the student-loan 
>industry, to design a system to put the burden on students, who 
>either pay more tuition or go deeper in debt,'' said Ivan Frishberg, 
>director of the higher-education project of the State Public 
>Interest Research Groups, based in Washington, D.C.
>
>Frishberg's organization recently released a study that found that 
>college costs are rising by more than inflation nationwide and 
>student debt has increased sharply. In three years, from 1993 to 
>1996, the percentage of college students graduating with more than 
>$20,000 in debt increased to 19 percent, from 10 percent.
>
>Many universities say they will try to stick to their original plans 
>for this coming fall, which range from tuition increases of 4 
>percent to 9 percent, even if the cap comes off. But they stop short 
>of offering a guarantee.
>
>"If they continue to reduce our state share of instruction, that 
>would make things more complicated,'' said Elizabeth Conlisk, 
>spokeswoman for Ohio State University. "But we do not plan any 
>increase beyond the 9.2 percent that has been discussed.''
>
>"State share of instruction'' means tax dollars the General Assembly 
>gives universities to operate. Public universities rely most heavily 
>on tuition and tax dollars to operate, and cutting one usually means 
>raising the other.
>
>Ohio ranks 40th among states in the amount of tax dollars that go to 
>fund its public colleges. But tuition at four-year schools is 
>12th-highest in the country, and tuition at community colleges ranks 
>fifth-highest, according to the regents.
>
>This fall, 418,644 students were enrolled in Ohio's public universities.
>
>Ohio State already successfully lobbied Gov. Bob Taft to be able to 
>raise tuition by more than 6 percent next year: Taft granted OSU an 
>exemption in his budget proposal. The university had sought the 
>increase, which administrators say they need to make key 
>improvements for undergraduates, long before the budget 
>belt-tightening began.
>
>Now, legislators, who have been reworking the governor's proposed 
>budget, are talking about raising the cap for all schools to 9 
>percent or eliminating it. Money is tight not only because of a 
>slowing economy but because the state will be pouring more dollars 
>into funding primary and secondary education to satisfy an Ohio 
>Supreme Court order.
>
>Miami University is another school that says it would take advantage 
>of the cap removal next fall by raising its tuition by more than 6 
>percent. Plans call for an increase of about 8 percent, said 
>university spokeswoman Holly Wissing.
>
>"Just as the free market is best for business, Miami University 
>believes it is the best for this university and its graduates in the 
>long run,'' Wissing said.
>
>But not all schools would follow OSU's lead.
>
>The University of Cincinnati plans to cut its budget whether caps 
>come off or not, said spokesman Greg Hand. Tuition increases are 
>projected at 6 percent for next fall, he said.
>
>"There's a real effort being made to avoid passing state budget cuts 
>on to the students,'' Hand said. Proposals call for administrative 
>budgets to be cut by about 3.5 percent and academic spending by 2.5 
>percent.
>
>At Ohio University, spokeswoman Leesa Brown said next year's tuition 
>increase still stands at 6 percent.
>
>"We don't want to go above the 6 percent unless the higher-education 
>budget or our allocations are changed so dramatically that we'd have 
>to consider it,'' Brown said.
>
>OU has already started looking at ways to save money: It's planning 
>smaller employee raises and considering cutting back on a fund that 
>provides money for special initiatives at the school, such as 
>faculty hiring in high-demand departments where student enrollment 
>exceeds faculty resources.
>
>"We would start there, and I'm sure there's some other tweaking we 
>could do. We have said we don't want to go beyond the 6 percent -- 
>unless the budget really bottoms out,'' Brown said.
>
>Youngstown State University, among Ohio's least-expensive schools, 
>had planned tuition increases of between 3 percent and 4 percent for 
>fall, said President David Sweet.
>
>"But that was done all before the budget got into the current state 
>of affairs,'' Sweet said.
>
>Youngstown State is a so-called "access'' college and has been able 
>to offer lower tuition because of a state subsidy that replaces the 
>tuition dollars. But the proposed $77 million to continue the 
>program is in danger of being cut out of the state budget. This 
>year, the program is costing the state $65 million in tax dollars.
>
>If access is cut, some 30 community colleges and university branch 
>campuses across the state would take a huge hit.
>
>Pieter Wykoff, spokesman for Columbus State University, said cutting 
>access would mean tuition increases that some students could not 
>afford.
>
>"There will be a lot of people who won't be able to go to college. 
>We've sort of been the safety valve in the system,'' he said.
>
>That would run counter to the Board of Regents' plan to get more 
>Ohioans in college, Michael Brown said.
>
>"If you take out access challenge, you put that money on the backs 
>of people who can least afford it.''
>
>athomas at dispatch.com
>
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