Coloradans were promised that if Referendum C was approved, the hemorrhaging in higher education would cease.
The Colorado Commission on Higher Education this week put forth a budget request that calls for $565 million for universities and colleges – $65 million more than this year. If such added state support ultimately is approved, students won’t face another year of jaw-dropping tuition hikes.
The CCHE plan would cap tuition hikes at 2.5 percent, while increasing the amount of each tuition voucher the state gives to students from $2,400 to $2,560. The CCHE also requested another $49.5 million from this year’s budget to make up for enrollment growth the state failed to cover during the past four years.
It’s certainly not a champagne-popping moment for higher ed, but had Referendum C failed, another $300 million might have been carved out of state schools.
This is the first time the CCHE has recommended a specific tuition cap to lawmakers. We think it’s a perfectly good goal, but the state shouldn’t be so rigid as to ignore an individual school’s particular challenges and the possibility it may need a bit more. After all, higher ed has undergone some extreme cuts in recent years, but some colleges have fared better than others.
The CCHE is focused on increasing access to higher education for “under-represented students,” namely ethnic minorities, and its staff rightly figures that a 2.5 percent hike will allow more Colorado students to continue their educations.
Under the contract system the CCHE implemented last year, each state college and university is required to justify its costs and need for higher tuition, so there’s accountability built into the system.
The cap is a byproduct of last year’s struggle over the University of Colorado’s 28 percent tuition increase, which saddled in- state students with a larger percentage increase than non-residents, reversing a trend.
At the time, we said CU and the CCHE should negotiate in better faith in the future, using a common abacus that clearly spells out CU’s upcoming tuition levels as early as possible, with no surprises for Colorado families or for the legislature. A tuition cap certainly would do that and help families plan now for next year’s costs.
However, there’s no reason to eliminate flexibility when a college can show it’s justified.
Either way, 2.5 percent is a refreshing target, and Colorado families will be glad for the respite from the harsh reality of recent years.
