House votes to cap tuition increases to inflation rate

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The House voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to cap single-year tuition increases to the price of inflation at publicly funded, four-year institutions in the state.

The cap, which was approved 129-28, would bar any "state four-year higher education institution" from raising tuition and fees above inflation. It excludes community colleges and private schools.

The amendment was tacked onto a larger bill that would change the way the state funds higher education by capping the annual appropriations to institutions, while allotting $1,000 scholarships to many students to attend the schools of their choice -- be they public or private.

As state funding for higher education declined in recent years, Rep. Scott Muschany asserted that universities have turned to tuition increases rather than finding more ways to be efficient.

"They've relieved -- they haven't addressed -- that stress by raising tuition on the students of Missouri," said Muschany, R-St. Louis.

House Speaker Pro Tem Carl Bearden said universities have made no significant attempts to be more efficient, opting instead to continue increasing tuition to preserve the status quo.

"We have out-of-control institutions raising tuition without any real justification for doing so," said Bearden, R-St. Charles.

House Minority Leader Jeff Harris and Rep. Judy Baker -- both Democrats from Columbia -- were the most vocal opponents of the tuition cap on the floor, defending efforts by universities and colleges to be more efficient.

Harris said setting tuition rates is a "pretty fundamental decision" best left to university presidents and governing bodies, rather than the Legislature.

Rep. Kathlyn Fares, one of only a few Republicans to vote against the tuition cap, said universities need to be held accountable for tuition increases over the last five years, but not by the Legislature setting tuition rates.

"I'm not against saying that we need to see how all our state institutions are holding down their tuition, but I don't see limiting it as the role of the General Assembly," said Fares, R-St. Louis, chairwoman of the House Appropriations Committee for Education.

Fares said existing controls on higher education, such as the state Coordinating Board for Higher Education, already are equipped to address tuition issues.

But critics of how universities are spending their money said most of the schools have made few serious attempts at holding down costs.

Rep. Curt Dougherty, reading from a media account about University of Missouri System President Elson Floyd getting a pay raise to bring his salary to $371,000, said the institutions won't be more efficient without prodding.

"One-third of a million dollars for one employee, that sounds efficient to me," Dougherty, D-Independence, said sarcastically.

The House also gave first-round approval to Bearden's larger bill, which he says is designed to shift state funding for higher education from institutions to individual students. The bill must get final approval before moving to the Senate.

It would limit annual state funding increases to higher education at 2.5 percent after state funding levels reach the level they were for the 2002 fiscal year. Lawmakers that year appropriated $976 million to higher education, while the budget approved by the House last month includes $876 million.

Bearden said public institutions have become complacent, and by capping both tuition increases and state appropriations, public universities would be forced to be more efficient and competitive. He said giving aid directly to students -- in the form of $1,000 scholarships -- rather than to the schools would do the most to make higher education more affordable.

"Supporting higher education is not about the institution," he said. "The institution is a way of delivering higher education, but it's not what we should be concentrating on."

Baker said it takes money to make quality institutions, and the Legislature already has cut its support for higher education.

"Unless we do more for our higher education facilities, we will continue to ratchet down what they're able to do," she said.

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College bill is HB1865

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Legislature: http://www.moga.mo.gov