SENATOR WANTS CAP ON COLLEGE TUITION; SEMO PRESIDENT OPPOSES THE IDEA

A state senator wants to cap tuition increases at Missouri's four-year public colleges by tying the fee hikes to inflation.

The senator, Steve Ehlmann, R-St. Charles, wants to bar the public colleges from raising tuition higher than inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index.

Ehlmann said Wednesday he will offer the tuition cap as an amendment to Senate Bill 287, which would create the Challenge Scholarship program of income-tax credits for college students.

"Without the tuition cap, I'm afraid colleges and universities will see the Challenge Scholarships as a new pot of money to be swept away in the form of higher costs," Ehlmann said.

Southeast Missouri State University's president, Dr. Dale Nitzschke, opposes the idea.

He said it would cut into school budgets and make it impossible for colleges to offer new programs.

Nitzschke said it would take fee matters out of the hands of local boards of regents and, in effect, give that power to the state.

"I think artificial caps are wrong," he said.

Nitzschke said it could only work if the state increased its funding of state colleges. "That is not going to happen," he said.

The Washington-based American Council on Education also opposes the idea.

The council's David Merkowitz said no state has such a tuition-cap law, although some states try to limit tuition hikes in other ways.

Michigan State University, for example, has an agreement with the Legislature that it won't raise tuition higher than the Consumer Price Index provided that it receives sufficient funding from the state.

Some states offer incentive funding to schools that limit tuition increases, Merkowitz said.

Missouri Republican Party spokesman Daryl Duwe said the tuition cap is a top priority of the party.

But state Sen. Peter Kinder, R-Cape Girardeau, said he hasn't studied the issue or taken a position on it.

Gov. Mel Carnahan proposed the tax credits to help make the first two years of college education more affordable for Missourians.

He hasn't commented on Ehlmann's amendment.

Carnahan spokesman Chris Sifford said the governor's office was reviewing the tuition-cap proposal.

Ehlmann also plans to offer two other amendments. One would freeze state funding for colleges and universities at the current level. Any additional funding would be given directly to the students rather than to the institutions.

The third amendment would replace tax credits with vouchers so that such money counts as part of total state revenue under the state constitution's Hancock Amendment.

That would make it harder to lower the state revenue figure to a point where taxes could be raised without voter approval, Ehlmann said.

Nitzschke said a budget freeze would hurt schools.

Missouri's public colleges would be put at a disadvantage in terms of competing for quality faculty and students, he said.

Ehlmann said he doesn't understand why tuition continues to climb faster than inflation.

He argued that a tuition cap would force schools to become more efficient.

Last year, tuition and general fees at the nation's public schools increased by about 5 percent, on average. That was about 2 percent higher than inflation, said Merkowitz, director of public affairs for the American Council on Education.

The 5 percent hike was the lowest in about 20 years, Merkowitz said.

Southeast raised its tuition or incidental fees by 3.2 percent last year.

The state's Coordinating Board for Higher Education says full-time, undergraduate students who are Missouri residents pay $3,033 in tuition and general fees, on average, to attend one of the state's four-year public colleges or universities this academic year.