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Legislative News and Views - Rep. Jennifer Schultz (DFL)

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RELEASE: GOP Higher Ed. agreement will lead to increased tuition, reduced quality

Wednesday, May 3, 2017

ST. PAUL – House and Senate conferees have finished work on a Higher Education Omnibus Bill. While the bill which passed the House initially invested an additional $149.5 million in the University of Minnesota, Minnesota State Colleges and Universities and Minnesota State Grant Program, the conference committee agreement includes just $125 million. These are both a far cry from the $318 million recommended by Gov. Mark Dayton.

State Rep. Jennifer Schultz (DFL – Duluth) released the following statement:

“Remarkably, the Republicans in charge of putting this bill together somehow found a way to go backward from what was already a very limited investment in Minnesota college students first passed by the House. The University of Minnesota is treated particularly harshly, and for it to continue its legacy as a premier research institution and system, it needs the Legislature to step up and make it a priority. Under this bill not only will quality diminish, but students will acquire more debt.

“Moreover, they retain the disingenuous unfunded ‘tuition freeze’ at the Minnesota State campuses. This is more of the same phony budgeting we have seen from the Republican Majority all session, but this time, it is students feeling the burden.”

“If this bill does indeed go forward in the current form, I sincerely hope Gov. Dayton will send it back and demand a better bill. Current and future college students are counting on it.”

Rep. Schultz serves on the House Higher Education and Career Readiness Committee and is a Professor of Economics at the University of Minnesota – Duluth.