Proposed Tuition Hike Historically Modest, but Still More than What Students Would Like

By Lynn Campbell
IowaPolitics.com

Student leaders of Iowa's state universities Thursday largely praised a proposed tuition increase for the 2012-13 school year as "modest" and a "rarity," although they said the increase still would create a hardship for some.

"The proposed tuition increase (of $240, or 3.75 percent, for resident undergraduates) would be one of lowest in the past 30 years," said Elliot Higgins, student government president of the University of Iowa. "The average increase in that 30-year period was 7.3 percent, almost double the current proposal."

The proposal, which would raise about $24 million, got an initial hearing Thursday at the Iowa Board of Regents meeting in Cedar Falls. The board will vote on the proposal at its December meeting in Ames. However, the rate of the tuition hike could change, depending on funding decisions by the 2012 Legislature.

Tuition is only one part of the total price tag for college students.

When tuition, fees, room, board and other costs are combined, the average total cost for attending Iowa State University in Ames, University of Iowa in Iowa City or University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls as a resident undergraduate would be $19,920, under the proposal. That's an average of $650 more than this year.

"Even with the increase, Iowa's public universities remain a great value, as their tuition and fee rates are approximately 17 percent less than the national average," Higgins said.

Regent David Miles, of West Des Moines, said he likes that the proposed tuition hike is getting closer to the rate of inflation. The Higher Education Price Index, an inflation index designed specifically to track the main cost drivers in higher education, projects fiscal 2013 inflation to be in the range of 2.6 percent to 4.2 percent.

"Students are finding it very hard to complain about an increase that is estimated to cover the inflationary increases in the cost of education," said Iowa State University Student Body President Dakota Hoben.

But Spencer Walrath, student body president of the University of Northern Iowa, said while students are willing to cover their share of the costs, they now are paying for almost 60 percent of the cost of their education at a public university through tuition. The other share comes from state taxpayer dollars, which have been cut by $144 million, or 25 percent, since fiscal 2009.

"These tuition increases have had and will continue to have an enormous impact on people like me who grew up in lower-class families," Walrath said. "An education is the only way for students to break out of the lower class. For me, graduating from college means I don't have to go back to the trailer park I graduated from high school in."

Walrath said federal Pell Grants, which are need-based grants to low-income students that do not have to be repaid, max out at $5,500. That leaves students far short of paying the proposed total $19,920 price tag.

"Federal aid will not cut it anymore," he said. "When we continuously raise tuition, you make higher education inaccessible to students like me."

Iowa ranks fourth highest in the nation for average student debt, according to a report on the Class of 2009 by the Project on Student Debt, an initiative of The Institute for College Access & Success, an independent nonprofit working to make higher education more available and affordable.

Regent Robert Downer, of Iowa City, said he was concerned about how that level of debt will affect the state's workforce.

"When it comes to paying back student debt, that cost is the same whether you're in Sioux City, Mason City or New York City," Downer said. "I feel that this can have a seriously detrimental effect on our efforts to build the economy."

Nationally, outstanding student debt has passed $1 trillion.

The Board of Regents meeting came a day after President Barack Obama announced a plan that seeks to lessen the burden of paying back student loans for about 1.6 million borrowers. The plan would accelerate a law passed by Congress last year that lowers the maximum required payment on student loans from 15 percent to 10 percent of discretionary income annually. It would take effect next year, instead of 2014. Unpaid student loan debt would be forgiven after 20 years, instead of 25.

Iowa's college tuition proposal hinges upon the level of state funding. Last month, the Iowa Board of Regents voted unanimously for a budget that seeks a 4 percent increase for Iowa's three state universities in fiscal 2013.

State Sen. Brian Schoenjahn, D-Arlington, co-chairman of the Legislature's Education Appropriations Subcommittee, told IowaPolitics.com that he was receptive to the proposal.

But Iowa House Education Chairman Greg Forristall, R-Macedonia, who's also a member of the Education Appropriations Subcommittee, called the budget request "pretty optimistic" and said a 4 percent increase would require the state to short other areas.

Tim Albrecht, a spokesman for Gov. Terry Branstad, was noncommittal Thursday about funding for higher education in the upcoming year.

"The governor continues to craft his budget for the upcoming legislative session and has not yet come to a decision on funding for our regents institutions," Albrecht said. "He will take all information into account, including the recommendation from the Board of Regents."