House OKs more funds for higher ed

04/24/2005

Norman Draper, Star Tribune
April 23, 2005


The Republican-dominated House of Representatives approved more than $200 million in new funds for the University of Minnesota and Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU) over the next two years.

Debate over the funding bill centered on the prospect of continued tuition hikes; DFLers warned that the new money would not be enough to avoid large increases. Several legislators used the debate as a forum to criticize the University of Minnesota’s proposal to shut down its General College, which serves students deemed unprepared for the rigor of the regular university, and admits a disproportionate share of the University’s racial minority students.

“The closing of General College will have a devastating impact on young people seeking a higher education in my district,” said Rep. Keith Ellison, DFL-Minneapolis.

But the majority of the House apparently felt an imperfect budget boost was better than no increase at all.

“I look at this bill as a glass half-full, not a glass half-empty,” said Rep. Joe Opatz, DFL-St. Cloud.

The House plan, which allocates a total of $2.75 billion to higher education, would reverse the two-year trend of cuts that have reduced funding by $191 million at MnSCU and $185 million at the university. But according to DFL critics, those increases are still not enough to ward off continuing tuition growth.

“There isn’t enough money in this bill to stop a 10 percent increase [a year] tuition on the MnSCU side,” said Rep. Gene Pelowski, DFL-Winona. He estimated that the bill could raise University of Minnesota tuition by 16 percent over the two-year budget period. Tuition at the University of Minnesota has risen at least 12 percent a year for the past four years. MnSCU tuition has risen 60 percent in four years.

“It’s been double-digit tuition increases at my institution and many of yours for six years in a row,” said Rep. Frank Moe, DFL-Bemidji, who also teaches at Bemidji State University. “And [the students] can’t sustain that.”

But MnSCU officials say that while the House bill amounts could lead to tuition hikes of 9 to 10 percent a year, that would only happen if MnSCU put the entire burden of balancing its books on MnSCU students. What’s more likely, said MnSCU associate vice chancellor Linda Kohl, is a combination of budget cuts and tuition increases.

The bill gives MnSCU and the University of Minnesota what House Republicans say is $102 million each in new funds for the combined 2006 and 2007 budget years. But University of Minnesota chief financial officer Richard Pfutzenreuter said that figure is misleading. He said the House bill would give the university $87 million of the $126 million in new money it requested, and has padded the rest of the bill’s total with expenses that university officials didn’t request.

Still, Rep. Bud Nornes, R-Fergus Falls, chief author of the funding bill and chairman of the House Higher Education Finance Committee, noted that the proposal gets both systems back on track for increased funding.

“There has been a steady decline over a number of years in the state commitment to higher education as far as money goes,” Nornes said. “The graph has kind of been down ... I think this levels that graph and maybe turns it upward a little bit as far as the state is concerned.”

The Senate is also considering a higher education funding bill, which is expected to come up for a floor vote next week.