ST. PAUL – Sunday night, the Minnesota House passed its second version of the Omnibus Higher Education Finance and Policy Bill. The legislation underfunds the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities’ biennial budget request by $72 million, while hitting the University of Minnesota particularly harshly, coming in $92.3 million short of its request. This level of funding will almost certainly result in cuts to programming, cuts to faculty, and tuition increases for students. The underfunding comes despite a $1.6 billion state budget surplus.
State Rep. Ben Lien (DFL – Moorhead) released the following statement:
"Higher education needs to be about the students and right now in Minnesota, and around the country, we have a generation of people beginning their adult lives saddled with debt because of tuition. This is not good for people looking to better themselves, and it's not good for the future of our economy.
"Right now between 70% and 75% of jobs in Minnesota require some form of post-secondary education. With a $1.6 billion surplus, we need to do better for higher education, students and our state's future economy."