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State Representative Jeanne Poppe
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
651-296-4193
For more information contact: Sandy Connolly 651-296-8877
NEWS COLUMN
SET A PLACE FOR HIGHER EDUCATION AT THE BUDGET TABLE
The Higher Education and Workforce Development Policy and Finance Committee has been hearing testimony from students and college faculty regarding the need for additional funding for higher education. When the testimony is completed, we will begin to consider different proposals to address these concerns.
What we need to remember as we move forward with any budget recommendations is the message we heard from the voters in November they want their elected officials to focus on the top priorities of a high quality education for every student, affordable and adequate health care for all and property tax relief. This message is the direct result of the statewide budget cuts that have been made over the past few years. Funding for Early Childhood, K-12 and higher education, health care facilities, and aid to cities and counties all of these have been slashed. While it is important for us to address these priorities within our current budget constraints, we may find there is not enough money to do everything we would like to do. We must not find ourselves funding higher education at the expense of our nursing homes, nor should we continue to raise property taxes to equalize our school funding. These equally important priorities indicate great need that we must address.
It is within this framework that we begin to consider legislation to fund higher education. Testimony from a former student of Austin Jr. College helped put into perspective the challenge before us. As a young man from Jackson, Mn., Monte Bute earned his high school diploma while a resident of the Minnesota Correctional Facility in Red Wing. When he left there, he began a factory job in the Twin Cities, where a company attorney took a special interest in him and encouraged him to consider college. He headed to our area to attend Austin Jr. College (at that time, found on the third floor of the high school). This was made possible by an open admission policy and reasonable tuition. There, a professor saw his potential and became his mentor. With new confidence, he continued his education and today is a college professor!
In 1963, Monte began his college studies, paying $7.50 for a college credit at Austin; today that credit costs more than $130. He transferred to Minneapolis Community College, where he paid $8.25 per credit more than $141 for students there today. His last stop, the University of Minnesota, cost him $10 per credit hour in 1967. That cost has now soared to $275 a credit.
In his testimony, Professor Bute stated, "Without question, inflation has played a role in this mind-boggling rise in tuition. However, inflation is little more than an accessory to the crime. When it comes to ever increasing tuition rates in Minnesota, the crime scene is the State Capitol". To me, it appears we have abandoned this generation of college students.
In the early 1980's, the state's share of public higher education was 80 percent, with students picking up the other 20 percent. For the next two decades the state share was roughly two-thirds of the cost, with students covering one-third. Since 2002, the state's commitment to sharing college costs has shrunk to 50 percent. As the result, we have seen year after year of double-digit tuition increases, mounting student debt, and sadly, the doors of higher education are swinging shut for more and more students. Clearly, this issue needs to be addressed as we set the state budget for the next two years.
As with all the funding requests the Legislature will be deliberating, it is likely the disparity in state funding for higher education will not be entirely fixed this year, but instead be addressed slowly over the next few years. I am hopeful we can responsibly phase in more funding so the state can return to the tradition of paying up to 80 percent of the cost of public higher education. We cannot afford to lose another generation of Minnesota's college students to sky-high tuition, crippling debt and even worse, limited opportunities.
Please feel free to contact me at any time - I can be reached by phone at 1-888-682-3180 or 1-651-296-4193, by mail at 487 State Office Building, 100 Martin Luther King Blvd., St. Paul, MN 55155 or via e-mail at rep.jeanne.poppe@house.mn. If you are interested in receiving my session e-newsletter, please email me and your name will be added to our list.
News Items
- POPPE SELECTED AS AGRICULTURE POLICY COMMITTEE CHAIR - (Posted: 2012-11-16 00:00:00)
- Rep. Jeanne Poppe Encourages High School Juniors to Apply for Minnesota House of Representatives Page Program - Application Deadline is November 19th - (Posted: 2012-11-12 00:00:00)
- HORMEL INSTITUTE EXPANSION SIGNED INTO LAW - 2012 legislative session adjourns sine die - (Posted: 2012-05-11 00:00:00)
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