A partisan vote Thursday that killed a proposal to cap tuition raises hinged, like many things in Colorado, on local control and on just how little Colorado funds colleges and universities currently.
The introduced by Sen. Andy Kerr D-Lakewood, would have extended the current tuition cap of 6 percent permanently with the goal of controlling the rise of student debt.
The bill was killed Thursday in the senate education committee.
Sen. Chris Holbert, R-Parker, who opposed the bill, said during the committee that while the idea was good, he didn’t want to take away an option colleges have to balance their budget when the state doesn’t properly help fund them.
Nobody at the hearing testified against the bill to cap tuition raises, but members from Colorado Mesa University who were there on another issue, did make a side note to ask the committee to let colleges keep control of raising tuition if they need to, saying their boards already scrutinize those decisions.
Some legislators were shocked to learn during the hearing just how little the state contributes to the total budget of colleges and universities.
In looking only at operating budgets, the state’s contribution is nearly a third, with student burden — mostly tuition — making up the other two thirds.
But when looking at the institutions’ total revenue — including other dollars such as federal funds, profits from bookstores, or private donations — the state contribution is less than a quarter, and less than 12 percent at three schools.
