June 22, 2007
StarTribune
Jeff Shelman
An ugly battle in the tuition reciprocity agreement between Minnesota and Wisconsin was averted, essentially because of what amounts to a change in plumbing.
With the University of Minnesota threatening to pull out of the agreement as soon as next week, the governors of the two states announced a compromise on Friday.
The reciprocity program allows college students to cross state lines without having to pay more expensive nonresident tuition rates.
For students and parents, there will be essentially no difference between the current reciprocity setup and the one that will go into effect in the fall of 2008. Wisconsin students will continue to pay less out of pocket to attend Minnesota universities than in-state students.
The difference, however, is in how that happens.
Presently, Wisconsinites are charged a tuition rate similar to what they would pay if they stayed at home for college, a total that is as much as $2,200 a year less than Minnesota in-state tuition.
At the end of each year, the State of Wisconsin sends money to the State of Minnesota to cover those differences.
But beginning in the fall of 2008, Wisconsin students crossing the border will be charged the same amount in tuition as their Minnesota classmates.
Wisconsin residents, however, will receive a "tuition reciprocity supplement," a subsidy that lowers their actual out-of-pocket charges.
At the end of each semester, both the University of Minnesota system and Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system will bill the State of Wisconsin for those supplements.
The change will be phased in over four years and will apply only to new students. Current students and students beginning classes this fall will not be affected.
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June 17, 2007
StarTribune
Editorial
Amid all the shrugs and curses in response to a lackluster 2007 legislative session, two public enterprises went home happy. The University of Minnesota and the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities had their best legislative session this decade, winning increases in state funds of 17 and 13 percent, respectively, over the coming two years.
To that result, we must say, "Keep it coming" -- and not just to the state's two public collegiate systems, but also to the student financial-aid system, which did not have such a good year. For a state whose governor boasted 20 years ago that its claim to fame would be its brainpower, Minnesota has been too stingy with tax support for higher education for a long time. It'll take more than one good session to put legitimacy back into the Brainpower State slogan.
"Minnesota Coasting" was the title of a report that documented that trend, presented last month in Brainerd to a meeting of the Minnesota Association of Financial Aid Administrators. Its author was Tom Mortenson, an Iowa-based national analyst of higher education policy, and a Minnesota native son.
"I gave them a tongue-lashing," Mortenson said of his report. "Minnesota's long-standing leadership in higher education has and is falling apart."
The evidence he cited is compelling, and worthy of concern:
Tightfistedness
Admittedly, the hard knock of the post 9/11 recession and the political appeal of antitax messages have combined to make this a rough decade for public higher education in all states, not just Minnesota.
But only four states -- Colorado (where voters put a constitutional clamp on government growth in the 1990s), South Carolina, Iowa and Mississippi -- made a bigger retreat from 2000 to 2007, in percentage terms, than Minnesota did in the share of personal income it devotes to tax support of higher education. Those states are not ones Minnesotans often aspire to emulate.
It's no secret to Minnesota students and their families that the rising tuition has been the result of the state's tightfistedness toward its colleges and universities. What Minnesotans may not realize is how far above the national average this state's public higher education costs have risen.
]]>June 7, 2007
StarTribune
Editorial
When a legislative session ends, thoughts at the University of Minnesota turn quickly to tuition. It was a good session for the university, and the pricing ideas emanating from Morrill Hall this week are mostly good too, to wit:
• Wisconsin Discount Days should come to an end at the University of Minnesota. The arrangement officially called "reciprocity" tilts too far in the Badger State's direction. President Robert Bruininks is right: If the two states' higher education negotiators can't come up with a new agreement that's fairer to Minnesota, the Board of Regents should unilaterally charge Wisconsin students Minnesota resident rates, beginning with the 2008 freshman class.
It's not fair to taxpaying Minnesotans, or to the state's neighbors to the north and west, that they pay higher tuition when they enroll at the University of Minnesota than Wisconsinites do. Wisconsin students at the Twin Cities campus pay what they would have paid if they had enrolled on the Big 10 campus in Madison. No other reciprocity arrangement with a state or province carries similar terms.
]]>Minnesota is used to seeing governors get pretty agitated about a chance to snare a new industry for this state, or keep a good one tethered here.
My late book-writing partner Elmer L. Andersen probably got all of about two votes from the Iron Range, he being a Republican. But he still spent nearly four years promoting a constitutional guarantee of fair taxation to anchor the taconite industry here.
Twenty years later, DFLer Rudy Perpich circled the globe, hunting for jobs in industries ranging from chopsticks manufacturing to supercomputing. Then came Republican Arne Carlson, who knocked himself out to keep Northwest Airlines afloat.
Even Jesse Ventura used an appearance on NBC's "The Tonight Show" to pitch for a new employer for laid-off taconite workers in Hoyt Lakes.
So as the clock wound down on the 2007 session, I figured that Gov. Tim Pawlenty would soon start talking up the University of Minnesota's request for fast-track bonding authority for four new bioscience research buildings. Or that legislators would start buzzing about calls from the governor's office, urging a kind look at the university's plan for hiring scores of new faculty.
The university's request was, after all, the only viable, affordable, remotely plausible plan in sight for keeping up with the competition, and snagging a share of the industry that's exploding in research hotspots around the country.
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May 22, 2007
Rick Moore
On the final day of the 2007 session Monday, the Minnesota State Legislature passed a higher education spending bill that would provide an increase in funding of about $149 million for the University of Minnesota for the 2008-09 biennium.
The bill passed with overwhelming bipartisan support in both bodies--by a vote of 65-0 in the Senate and 127-7 in the House. It's now up to Gov. Tim Pawlenty to either sign the bill or veto all or parts of it.
"For the last several years, the University has been focused on reforms to improve the quality of education and the impact of our research and public responsibilities on Minnesota's economy and quality of life," President Bob Bruininks said in a statement Monday afternoon. "The funding bill passed today will ensure we can continue on that path to become one of the best public research universities in the world."
The University had requested $182.3 million in new state funding for the biennium. The increase approved Monday by the legislature represents about 82 percent of the U's request. The additional state support will be used to enhance the University's core mission and competitive position, and invest in measures that help "create Minnesota's future."
]]>The following is a statement from University of Minnesota President Robert Bruininks in response to passage of a higher education funding bill by both the House and Senate today:
"For the last several years, the university has been focused on reforms to improve the quality of education and the impact of our research and public responsibilities on Minnesota's economy and quality of life. The funding bill passed today will ensure we can continue on that path to become one of the best public research universities in the world.
"Although the university did not get everything out of this legislative session that we sought, we are pleased with this outcome. Through this bill, the Legislature recognizes the central importance of strong state support for higher education and a need to control the rate of tuition increases. I applaud legislative leadership and legislators from both parties for this strong bipartisan vote for addressing the future of higher education in Minnesota."
]]>May 12, 2007
StarTribune
Before vetoing a bill to fund state colleges, universities and student aid in the coming two years, Gov. Tim Pawlenty described the measure as "underwhelming, uninspiring and devoid of reforms."
It's a critique legislators should take to heart as they go back to the drawing board. The vetoed higher-ed bill would have minimally maintained the status quo in higher education, and kept tuition increases in the next two years in a tolerable single-digit range.
But the bill did too little to prepare Minnesota for the day that's soon coming, when a shortage of well-educated workers will be the No. 1 complaint about the state's business climate and a serious drag on state prosperity. A targeted strategy is needed to increase the share of Minnesota young adults who enroll in college -- and, once there, graduate from college.
The obvious target population for such a strategy are young people from low-income families. While the number of disadvantaged Minnesota families has been growing rapidly in this decade, the share of 18- to 24-year-olds from those households who go to college has been falling. Those two trends portend trouble for Minnesota, and cry out for state efforts to reverse them.
]]>The Minnesota House and Senate approved a $3.2 billion higher education funding bill that now goes on to face Gov. Pawlenty's veto. DFL supporters of the bill contend it sticks to basics and makes up for past underfunding of the state's colleges and universities. Pawlenty calls it uninspiring and devoid of any reform, with a ballooning pricetag in outlying years.
The backers of the higher education plan offer it as a bare-bones package that maximizes meager funding for the sake of students. Sen. Sandy Pappas, DFL-St. Paul, half-heartedly served the bill on the Senate floor.
"Over three bienniums, we are still 6 percent below what would we would have been if we had just been doing an inflationary increase," Pappas said. "So this is not a generous budget."
The bill passed the Senate 44-21. Later in the day, it went on to the House floor where Rep. Tom Rukavina, DFL-Virginia, touted the bill's focus on lowering tuition. He also blasted Republicans for previous funding cuts to cover a budget deficit.
"When you guys were in charge you were cheap -- unbelievably cheap," Rukavina told House GOP members. "You cut the MnSCU and the university system by $380 million in 2003. You decimated the system. You put 70 percent increases over five years on kids and students."
The bill passed the House 85-46.
]]>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.
Full Story
For new industry's sake, let go of legislative control.
Minnesota has the ingredients to be a biomedical science leader -- world-class medicine, innovative agriculture and a major research university. What's needed is a way to bring those ingredients together ASAP for some creative synergy.
That's what Frank Cerra aims to accomplish as senior vice president of the University of Minnesota's Academic Health Center. He has a solid plan: Create a biosciences zone on the Twin Cities campus, build state-of-the art facilities, hire 200 top faculty and set out to win upwards of $100 million a year in grants for research that cures disease -- and creates jobs.
It's ambitious but achievable -- provided Gov. Tim Pawlenty and the Legislature get behind it. Authorizing one building every few years, as the political tides permit, won't turn the heads of the high-caliber faculty Cerra is courting. An upfront commitment for five new buildings will.
Cerra explains: "Recruiting every one of these faculty is a three- or four-year effort. We compete with Harvard, [Johns] Hopkins, Michigan, the California schools. It's a seller's market. These faculty want the best facilities to do their work in. That's very important to them. What do I show them?"
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St. Paul, Minn. — (AP) - Rather than spare projects he liked, Gov. Tim Pawlenty vetoed an entire state construction funding bill Tuesday and told legislators they'll have to scale it back to must-do items if they want his backing.
The $334 million bill passed the House and Senate the day before. It authorized borrowing or cash payments for flood mitigation in Browns Valley, arena expansions in Duluth and St. Cloud, seed money for new transit lines and general repair of prison and college buildings.
"This is unfortunate because it includes a number of good and worthy projects, including things I strongly support," Pawlenty said.
He attacked it as too large and said it came to him too soon in the process. Pawlenty said he asked leaders to withhold the public works bill until after a broader budget agreement was struck.
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April 30, 2007
StarTribune
Norman Draper
House and Senate negotiators Monday took another step toward controlling the high costs of college textbooks, agreeing to require publishers to disclose textbook costs, formats, return policies, and how much new editions differ from older ones.
The disclosures are meant to give students and faculty more textbook choices, and to get a handle on their classroom books and materials expenses, which can run students up to $1,000 a year. It's not uncommon to find students at college bookstores shelling out well over $100 for individual texts.
Higher education conference committee members also agreed that public colleges and universities in the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU) system must meet annually with students, teachers and administrators to figure out how to reduce the costs of college course materials. Private colleges and the University of Minnesota would be asked to adopt the disclosure measures.
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April 30, 2007
StarTribune
Conrad Defiebre
DFLers flexed their legislative muscle Monday by sending a $334 million public-works bill for college campuses, mass transit, bridges and more to Gov. Tim Pawlenty with practically no help from minority Republicans.
The DFL majorities in the House and Senate alone posted the 60 percent votes needed to approve $168 million in state borrowing for half the measure, but they fell short of the two-thirds required to override expected vetoes from the Republican governor.
"This bill is chock full of more pork than Famous Dave's on the Fourth of July," said House Minority Leader Marty Seifert, R-Marshall. "The only question is whether the governor will veto the whole thing or make so many line-item vetoes that you won't recognize it anymore."
The first major spending bill of the 2007 session passed the House on three straight party-line votes of 84 to 49. In the Senate, Republicans Dick Day of Owatonna and Paul Koering of Fort Ripley joined DFLers on a vote of 45-18.
Now begins a three-day period in which the governor has to decide whether and how to exercise his veto pen. His spokesman, Brian McClung, said Monday that Pawlenty will at least "significantly trim" the measure.
]]>March 31, 2007
StarTribune
Walter Mondale and Arne Carlson
We have experienced the thrill of day-to-day politics, the stimulation of working with colleagues, building coalitions and, at times, arguing with opponents. Yet we find the most exciting times in political life are when an innovative idea emerges, a concept that feeds a vision worthy of our values as Minnesotans.
One such idea is the Minnesota Biomedical Sciences Research Facilities Authority, a proposal at the Minnesota Legislature. It is a new and daring idea that commits to a 10-year investment in up to four sophisticated research facilities to house top-ranked researchers who will advance knowledge and improve health.
It takes courage to embrace changes in the way things always have been done. We are truly delighted that the state Senate passed this proposal last week by a vote of 56 to 9. We are optimistic that the House will join its colleagues and agree that this initiative is critical to retaining our leadership in the biomedical science industry.
]]>A Senate committee on Monday voted to bet the farm that Minnesota's economic future depends on biomedical research at the University of Minnesota.
The Senate Capital Investment Committee approved a bill that would allow the U to build six new biomedical research laboratories over 10 years, spending $370 million to stay at the forefront of medical and scientific breakthroughs.
"It's a commitment to compete with other states and countries around the world for the most advanced biomedical research facilities," University of Minnesota President Robert Bruinicks said.
Minnesota has a strong, vibrant biomedical technology industry, and the U research facilities are needed to keep that industry growing, Bruinicks said. "This is an investment in the core infrastructure of Minnesota's economy."
The bill creates a new biomedical facilities research authority with the power to borrow money by selling state bonds to finance construction and furnishing of the U labs.
The authority isn't a new idea. The Senate approved it last year, but the House refused to support it because it would have put the U first in line for state public works projects and counted against the state's borrowing limit for other facilities.
Senate Capital Investment Committee Chairman Keith Langseth, DFL-Glyndon, said the U project is the only one he would consider for a long-term funding commitment. "This is telling the world that these research facilities are going to be available," he said.
The facilities authority is not in the bonding bill scheduled for a House vote tonight, but House Capital Investment Committee Chairwoman Alice Hausman, DFL-St. Paul, said she thinks lawmakers can find a way to guarantee the labs will be built.
"Everyone understands that the university needs to move ahead on cutting-edge research," Hausman said. "I think there's a way that we can send a message that we are committed to building these laboratories."
Speaking to the Senate committee, Dr. Frank Cerra, the university's senior vice president for health sciences, said that to recruit top national and international research scientists, the U must be able to assure them it will build the labs they need. "The question is: Will we be a flyover state or a world player (in biomedical research)?" he asked.
The Senate commitment to the U labs was included in a relatively modest, $307 million public works funding bill that also would help pay for the central corridor light-rail transit line between downtown St. Paul and downtown Minneapolis and the renovation of St. Paul's Union Depot as a transit hub, plus a handful of other projects. The legislation goes to the Senate Finance Committee today and is scheduled for a Senate floor vote on Wednesday.
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