No one can be happy with tuition hikes of 28 percent at the University of Colorado, but the Colorado Commission on Higher Education is 100 percent wrong to seek a retroactive decrease in funding just to punish the school.
CCHE director Rick O’Donnell and Gov. Bill Owens are right to think that the $966 increase is a burden on Colorado families, but they went along earlier this spring when everyone – CCHE, Owens and the legislature – agreed that CU could, should and would increase overall tuition revenue by $43.5 million. State officials apparently expected that CU would tap out-of-staters, but since they have borne the brunt of increases in recent years, CU decided it was more sensible to boost the in-state rate.
That came as a shock to O’Donnell and CCHE commissioners, who all believed tuition would go up about 11 percent. At 28 percent, it shocks many of us, but in fact the total cost of attendance is jumping “only” 9.5 percent, CU officials say, because the school kept a tight lid on room and board and fees. All told, in-state students can expect to spend $20,500 a year for everything, an increase of $1,781. Tuition is up about $966 for the average in-state undergrad.
It was a tough call for CU to make, but at $21,000 a year – for tuition alone – the school had begun scaring off out-of-state students whose payments subsidize the in-state students. Now, CCHE wants the legislature’s Joint Budget Committee to strip $13.8 million in funding from the school, creating an 11 percent tuition hike cap.
It sounds like a popular move, but what part of the $43 million that the CCHE found to be appropriate a few months ago should be sacrificed? CCHE’s position doesn’t make sense for a panel that is charged to protect the quality of state schools.
Rep. Tom Plant, D-Boulder, vice chairman of the JBC, says it’s illegal to boot. Negative supplementals, he says, can’t be entertained until next January.
“What he’s asking us to do isn’t something we’re authorized to do,” Plant said. Gov. Owens “is not proposing they decrease their expenditures, just their revenues. It’s not something that conforms with fiscal reality.”
CU says it needs the hike to make up for state budget cuts over the past several years, but Owens says CU’s $75 million drop in state funding over the past five years has been recouped with tuition increases of $177 million. CU President Betsy Hoffman, however, counters that utility costs have gone up, attendance has increased by 4,000 students and $120 million in capital projects were shelved by the state.
With Hank Brown coming aboard as CU’s new president, it’s time for a new era between CU and CCHE that places affordable education at the forefront, and politics last – or not at all.
