MADISON, Wis. (AP) - Gov. Scott Walker wants to modify his state budget plan to cap University of Wisconsin System resident undergraduate tuition increases according to inflation, according to a letter his administration sent to the leaders of the Legislature’s finance committee on Monday.
The two-year spending plan Walker introduced in early February calls for cutting $300 million from the system and extending an existing freeze on resident undergraduate tuition to July 1, 2017. In exchange Walker would free the system from state oversight in July 2016.
The plan has left students and legislators worried that the Board of Regents, unshackled from state control, could dramatically increase tuition when the freeze ends. The board last week approved raising tuition for out-of-state undergrads and some graduate students at most of the system’s four-year schools by hundreds and in some cases thousands of dollars beginning this fall.
The proposal is far from final. The Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee is about to begin the months-long process of revising Walker’s spending plan this week. Walker’s administration sent a letter to Rep. John Nygren, R-Marinette, and Sen. Alberta Darling, R-River Hills, the committee’s co-chairs, on Monday detailing last-minute modifications the governor wants made to the budget before the committee begins its work.
One of the modifications calls for capping resident undergrad tuition increases to no more than the annual change in inflation beginning in the fall of 2017 “in order to protect students and parents from unreasonable and unpredictable tuition increases.”
Walker has been hinting at capping tuition increases at the rate of inflation since mid-February.
UW officials insist another part of Walker’s budget that calls for the state to fund the system through a block grant rather than tax dollars that fluctuate every two years would create a more stable financial environment and help make tuition increases more predictable. The Walker administration’s letter also calls for increasing that block grant according to inflation beginning a year earlier, in 2017.
UW System President Ray Cross, who has been working to persuade the finance committee to scale back the $300 million cut, issued a carefully worded statement saying limiting tuition increases to inflation isn’t compatible with “the agile, market-driven, and competitive entity the state needs us to be.”
“We all agree that Wisconsin residents deserve a rational, transparent, and affordable tuition-setting policy based on actual costs, competitive markets, the needs of the state, and affordability,” Cross said. “The UW System should be just as responsive and nimble as our peers and competitors when it comes to setting tuition, and we look forward to working with legislators to reach that goal.”
A number of key Republican lawmakers, including Nygren and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, have said the $300 million cut is too deep but oppose handing the system more autonomy because they don’t believe the regents will use it to make any substantial changes and could raise tuition.
Nygren didn’t immediately return a voicemail Monday. Vos’ spokeswoman said she was working to get a response from him but he was tied up in a meeting.
A spokesman for Sen. Stephen Nass, R-Whitewater, vice chairman of the Senate’s universities committee and an outspoken UW critic, didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Derek Field is the vice chair of the Associated Students of Madison, the student government organization at UW-Madison. He called the cap proposal a positive step toward protecting college affordability for Wisconsin students but said it does nothing to address the $300 million cut.
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