Iowa’s community colleges also eyeing tuition hike

Before the last two rounds of state budget negotiations, Iowa's 15 community colleges asked for between $8 million and $10 million more in state appropriations.

Last year they got nothing.

And a proposal made public this week for the 2017 budget year again falls short — although not as far — with lawmakers pitching a $3 million bump in state allocations for community colleges. If approved, that shortfall could contribute to continuing tuition increases that have plagued Iowa's community colleges in recent years.

At Cedar Rapids-based Kirkwood Community College, for example, the lack of state support paired with new local and federal laws mandating higher worker pay will mean tuition bumps of between $5 and $7 a credit hour in the next academic year, according to President Mick Starcevich.

'That's about 4 percent,' he said. 'That's not too bad. But we like to keep it lower than that.'

On top of foundering state support, Kirkwood is facing new worker pay requirements expected to cost the institution more than $1 million in the next budget year.

Johnson County's incremental minimum wage hike — from the state rate of $7.25 an hour to $8.20 this past November, to $9.15 in May, and then to $10.10 in January 2017 — is requiring Kirkwood, which has a campus in Johnson County, to raise pay for minimum-wage employees across all seven of its counties.

'I don't begrudge it going up at all, I think it's a good idea,' Starcevich said. 'But we will move those up throughout our seven-county region.'

Kirkwood administrators also predict a hefty impact from changes to the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, which establishes minimum wage, overtime pay, record keeping and youth employment standards.

'That creates all sorts of dynamics in our salary groupings,' he said. 'This is the trifecta.'

The proposal to increase state allocations for community colleges by $3 million in the 2017 budget year is part of a more than $1 billion education spending proposal that also includes $6.3 million more for the Board of Regents-run public universities. That proposed regent funding also is well below the more than $20 million it requested, prompting board officials to eye a tuition hike for all three of its campuses.

Because that $3 million bump for Iowa's community colleges must be split between 15 schools, Kirkwood would get 17 percent of the new money, or about $470,000. That's about 1.5 percent above the $31.5 million it received in both of the past two years, and when combined with last year's status quo funding, Starcevich said,

'It really puts some pressure on our budgets,' he added.

And the $3 million is not yet guaranteed, as Gov. Terry Branstad has the final say.

Last year, after the Legislature approved a budget allotting $2.5 million for community colleges, Branstad vetoed it — along with $55.7 million in K-12 funding and a combined $9.2 million in one-time moneys for the regent universities.

'When the community colleges were started, 50 percent of the support was supposed to come from the state, 25 percent was supposed to come from the students, and 25 percent was supposed to come from local property taxes,' Starcevich said.

Today, 28 percent of the community college funding pie comes from state allocations.

'And our students bear the brunt of 65 percent of our budget,' Starcevich said. 'When you talk about student debt and affordability, that's just not good.'

'That was a struggle'

Lawmakers across the aisle in both the Senate and the House praise community colleges for the work they do training industry employees, preparing students to transition to four-year institutions, offering continuing education for those in the workforce and providing early college-level courses to high school students.

'With everybody in the Legislature, the first words out of their mouth is, 'We really value community colleges,'' Starcevich said, urging them to show that support with more resources. 'The problem is that now students are paying a larger and larger share each year of the total budget.'

After the governor last year nixed the increase for community colleges, Kirkwood 'made some significant cuts' worth $4 million to keep tuition low. Right now, the community college boasts among the lowest combined tuition and fees rate for in-state students at $148 per semester hour.

That represented a $3 bump from the previous year — matching the lowest community college tuition increase in the state. But the cuts, among other things, eliminated 18 positions — 15 people took an early retirement incentive and three were laid off.

'Our board is always firm on keeping the tuition increase as low as you can,' he said. 'So we work hard at doing that.'

Kirkwood administrators have been drafting a budget for the coming year that incorporates an increase on par with the one proposed. Starcevich said that, paired with improved efficiency and other retirements, could spare the institution from taking a similar hit this year.

'I don't foresee any cuts because of all those we made last year,' he said. 'That helped us going forward. But that was a struggle.'

And, Starcevich said, priorities need to shift.

'We always get down to the end game, and there are limited dollars to go to the regents and community colleges,' he said. 'We have got to change something …

. We need to do more for education.'

'It's not enough'

Rob Denson, Des Moines Area Community College president, said he too would like more money from the Legislature. DMACC's proportion of the $3 million would be $504,671, he said.

'But we are aware of the downturn in the agriculture economy and how that impacts manufacturing, and we understand they have to make tough decisions,' Denson said. 'Would we like more money? Absolutely. But we are very appreciative of what we got.'

DMACC, as with Kirkwood, is planning a tuition increase next fall. A $4 bump will take it from $143 per credit hour for in-state students to $147 per credit hour, an increase driven in part by low state appropriations but also higher health insurance rates, cost-of-living increases, and the need to raise employee pay.

'As helpful as (the state support) is, it's not enough,' Denson said.

To offset some of the tuition hike, DMACC is upping its pool of scholarship money from about $760,000 to $1 million — thanks to a silent capital campaign that has compelled more fundraising for student aid.

'We are able to help some students who have difficulty meeting the $4 increase,' he said.

Lawmakers are expected to consider final approval of the education spending plan next week.