Securing a tuition price for students

Planning for college costs can mean lots of uncertainty for students and their parents.

Rep. Mark Buesgens (R-Jordan) sponsors HF43, which would guarantee up to four years of stable tuition at any school in the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system or the University of Minnesota.

“This is probably the second biggest investment Americans make, yet all we can do is give them a variable rate mortgage on their education,” he said. “This is an attempt to put in another option when it comes to financing a college education.”

Heard March 10 by the House Higher Education and Work Force Development Policy and Finance Division, it was laid over for possible inclusion in the division’s omnibus bill.

A companion bill, SF232, sponsored by Sen. Chris Gerlach (R-Apple Valley), awaits action by the Senate Higher Education Committee.

“Right now we give broad latitude to both the MnSCU system and the University of Minnesota to set its tuition rates. This bill does not change that one iota,” Buesgens said. “This just adds a second component.”

The bill would require that, beginning this fall, tuition charged to an undergraduate enrolled in a baccalaureate degree program at a state college or university for each semester during a four-year period could not exceed the tuition that the student was charged during the first semester of enrollment. For students seeking a two-year associate’s degree the limit would be two years.

A student who continues to be enrolled after the specified period would see their tuition increase to the rate paid by new enrollees at the school.

Rep. Tom Rukavina (DFL-Virginia), the division chairman, commended Buesgens for the idea, but expressed concern that somebody would have to make up the difference of potential lost revenue.

“Is it the following freshman class or is it the students themselves, because the tuition gets jacked up in recognition? This is a capitalistic commodity.”