May 7, 2007
Minnesota Public Radio
Art Hughes
Members of a House and Senate conference committee are expected to agree on a higher education spending bill that adds $325 million to current spending on colleges and universities. Legislators are still working on the details of the $2.75 billion spending plan, but some major parts of the bill have been approved. The bill does not contain a provision to allow children of illegal residents to pay in-state tuition, a provision that Gov. Pawlenty said would lead him to veto the bill.
St. Paul, Minn. — The higher education bill falls well short of the money the University of Minnesota and the State Colleges and Universities System wanted.
In the bill, the U of M is awarded an additional $147 millions over the next two years. The U of M would get another $27 million in one-time money. Much of that goes to fund a partnership with the Mayo Clinic. MnSCU secures $142 million for the biennium along with $8 million in one-time funds.
The bill provides incentives to keep tuition hikes at the University of Minnesota to less than 3 percent a year. Legislators also urged MnSCU officials to hold tuition increases down. MnSCU Trustees have promised to keep any rise in tuition below a four percent average. If they stick to it, that would be the lowest increase in 10 years.
Senate Higher Education Budget Division Committee Chair Sandy Pappas says the spending plan focuses more on what the college systems are already doing, rather than new projects.
"The next priority needs to be holding down tuition," she said. "Although they had a lot of new and exciting initiatives... holding down tuition increases is a higher priority and they should fund those other things through reallocation or increased productivity."
Pappas says the higher education budget, which does not rely on tax increases, underfunds higher education.
One thing absent from the bill is a provision to allow children of illegal immigrants living in Minnesota to pay in-state tuition when they go on beyond high school. The House and Senate both passed the so-called DREAM Act language. Pappas says the DFL-controlled committees bowed to the governor's opposition.
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