Higher education funding approved

Federal stimulus money would be used to lessen the pain of cuts to Minnesota’s colleges and universities, under the higher education funding package approved April 15 by a House division.

HF869, sponsored by Rep. Tom Rukavina (DFL-Virginia), constitutes the omnibus higher education and workforce development finance bill. It would provide biennial funding for the Office of Higher Education, University of Minnesota and the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system.

The House Higher Education and Workforce Development Finance and Policy Division approved the bill April 15. It now goes to the House Finance Committee, where it is scheduled to be addressed April 17.

The bill would appropriate $1.2 billion each to MnSCU and the university from the General Fund. Approximately $130 million of MnSCU’s funding and $231 million of the university’s funding would be taken from stabilization dollars from the federal stimulus package. The totals are identical to Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s funding recommendations.

Rukavina said the stimulus funds would allow lawmakers to buy down potential tuition increases at state-funded postsecondary schools. For MnSCU, tuition hikes would be pushed down to 2 percent per year using the funds, while tuition at the university would increase by no more than $300 per year.

Speaking at an April 14 hearing, Rukavina warned that the tuition buy-downs would be temporary, and that once the one-time money runs out, students at both MnSCU and the university might be looking at much larger tuition increases in the next biennium unless the economy turns around.

“I just wanted to be perfectly honest with what could happen, because we’re using that stimulus money to try to serve the students as best we can, but it’s not sustainable,” Rukavina said.

OHE would receive $385.4 million from the General Fund under the bill’s provisions, with $348.7 million of that going toward student financial aid. Pawlenty recommended $15 million less for the office’s total funding.

A companion, SF155, sponsored by Sen. Sandy Pappas (DFL-St. Paul), awaits action by the Senate Higher Education Committee.