TUITION BEST LEFT TO THE BOARDS OF UNIVERSITIES, COLLEGES

Once again, the Missouri Legislature wants to meddle in decisions that should remain local. A state senator wants to cap tuition increases at Missouri's four-year public colleges and universities. The purpose may seem well-intentioned. Parents and students paying their own way are no doubt frustrated by the rising cost of college education.

But this isn't a matter for legislators. Local boards of regents and university officials should be the ones to decide the costs that their markets can bear.

If the universities charge too much, enrollments will go down. To remain competitive for students, fees may have to decrease. The free marketplace should rule, not some bureaucrat hundreds of miles away.

That isn't to say that the Legislature doesn't already have financial influence over public universities and colleges. Ironically, when the Missouri Coordinating Board for Higher Education wanted higher student fees, they forced institutions of higher learning to comply. The implied threat was reduced state funding. It worked. Southeast and the remaining four-year public institutions all raised student fees to make up more of the institution's income.

This proposed artificial cap also doesn't take into account the current level of tuition. Some schools may be way too low -- on purpose -- as an inducement to students. With this cap, they would be locked into that base level.

No state has imposed such a tuition cap law. That says something in itself. Some states try to limit tuition in other ways. For example, Michigan State University has agreed with its state legislature that tuition increases won't surpass the Consumer Price Index provided that it receives sufficient funding from the state. Other states offer incentive funding to schools that limit tuition increases.

Incentives, inducements, encouragement -- these ways are all fine to keep tuition increases down. The legislature simply must not displace the local board of regents in its ability to judge local issues, of which tuition is one.