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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
HIGHER EDUCATION BILL INCLUDES SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE
The House Higher Education and Workforce Development Division released its Higher Education omnibus bill this week. As Vice-Chair of the committee, I'm very pleased that as the result of this bill, students at colleges and universities will finally feel some relief from the double-digit tuition increases of the past several years.
The House Higher Education bill increases Minnesota's overall higher education investment by nearly $400 million. Funding is included to buy-down tuition increases at both the University of Minnesota and the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU) campuses.
The bill also includes almost $100 million in scholarship and financial aid programs and a pilot project to explore textbook rental and other cost-saving options. Minnesota veterans are provided with additional post-secondary education benefits and students from rural Minnesota will be offered improved learning opportunities through the ACHIEVE + Initiative. The bill invests in health workforce training programs to address the critical shortage of health care workers.
To move Minnesota into the future with regard to emerging technologies and bioscience, the legislation invests more than $30 million dollars in technology improvements across the MNSCU system and another $6.5 million at the University of Minnesota.
Two components of the bill stem from legislation I introduced that will specifically benefit our district. To increase opportunities for underemployed people, $160 thousand was included for a grant to Workforce Development, Inc for a pilot project for a manufacturing academy. The academy will provide demand–driven employment and training services to economically disadvantaged people in Mower, Freeborn, Dodge and Steele Counties.
The second appropriation is for $800 thousand over a two-year period to establish community-based energy development pilot projects. The funding will be made available to Riverland Community College, the Mesabi Range Technical and Community College and the Minnesota West Community and Technical College.
Our focus of the pilot project will be to address and raise awareness of alternative energy and train the future technicians who will be needed to install and maintain these systems.
I believe this bill begins to restore our state's commitment to higher education. In the early 1980's, the state's share of paying for 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, tuition at state colleges and universities has increased by over 70% in just the last five years.
Students at Riverland Community College saw a tuition increase in 2002 of 12.1%, followed by 11.6% in '03, 13% in '04 and 13% in '05. The value we place on educating our Minnesota residents for future jobs and careers has been dramatically diminished. We have replaced this cherished value with incomprehensible debt. If we continue to leave this generation out in the cold with tuition that is unaffordable and higher education choices that are unattainable, we will have far greater problems.
In developing this final bill, our committee considered more than 100 bills. This bi-partisan initiative combines the best higher education and workforce development ideas into a single package that will alleviate the tuition burden for students, invest in new and innovative programs, and ultimately move Minnesota forward.
Rep. Poppe can be reached 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.
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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