Pawlenty calls tuition increases excessive

07/26/2006

Dane Smith, Star Tribune
Last update: July 25, 2006 – 10:17 PM

Gov. Tim Pawlenty acknowledged in a major policy address Tuesday that tuition costs at Minnesota’s public colleges and universities rose too fast during his first term, and he promised to hold down further increases if he is reelected.

“The tuition-level increases were too high,” he said in a speech at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey Institute in Minneapolis. He added an explanation: “Keep in mind that we had a budget crisis of historic magnitude in 2003. It’s now 2006, and we’ve gotten to the point where we are adding back to higher education, and we will again.”

Pawlenty is the first of three party-endorsed gubernatorial candidates invited to speak at a series sponsored by the university’s Center for the Study of Politics and Governance.

Each U.S. Senate and gubernatorial candidate in the series is allowed to pick a major policy area of his choice. Pawlenty chose education. Attorney General Mike Hatch, the DFL endorsee, will speak Aug. 9 on health care. Consultant Peter Hutchinson, the Independence Party endorsee, who will talk on Aug. 10, has chosen the topic of government effectiveness..

Despite the excessive tuition increases—they have averaged about 10 percent a year going back to the first year of Gov. Jesse Ventura’s administration in 1999—Pawlenty said, Minnesota remains about average among comparable states.

The University of Minnesota’s tuition is “near the middle” among Big Ten schools, and MnSCU [Minnesota State Colleges and Universities] tuition levels are “comparable to their peers,” Pawlenty said.

He sounded an urgent need to overhaul education at all levels in order to compete with other states and nations.

He touted his own trial programs to install merit pay for public-school teachers and new, rigorous standardized tests. Pawlenty recently proposed free public higher-ed tuition to high-school students who finish in the top fourth of their class.

Not off the hook

His opponents said Pawlenty’s acknowledgment of the problem should not get him off the hook for causing the increases.

“This is the guy’s M.O., to stand up and admit he made a mistake and say he’ll do better,” said Hutchinson.

Hatch said Pawlenty came from a modest beginning and enjoyed enormous success equipped with an education from the state’s public institutions.

“Our tuition went up 80 percent under Ventura and Pawlenty,” Hatch said. “Why couldn’t [Pawlenty] have balanced the budget in some way that didn’t hurt our students?”