Education funding level triggers tuition hike discussion

DES MOINES - A House-Senate budget panel Thursday was able to bump up state higher education funding slightly for next fiscal year, but a top Iowa Board of Regents official said the increase would not stave off the need to boost tuition for students at Iowa's public universities next fall.

The Legislature's education appropriations subcommittee approved a fiscal 2017 budget of slightly more than $1 billion which included $3 million in new money for Iowa's 15 community colleges and $6.3 million for regent universities with $1.3 million for the University of Iowa, $2.2 million for Iowa State University and $2.78 million for the University of Northern Iowa.

'I know it's not enough,” said committee co-chairman Sen. Brian Schoenjahn, D-Arlington, who told the committee he and co-leader Rep. Cecil Dolecheck, R-Mount Ayr, 'searched for every dime we could” in working with an austere spending target.

'I don't think anybody got what they needed or think they needed, but we did the best we can with the resources that we have,” he told a packed Statehouse committee room. 'There may be a number of entities that are not happy with us.”

One of those entities was the Board of Regents, whose president Bruce Rastetter fired off a statement shortly after the vote of 5-4 among House members and 3-2 among senators acknowledging the tight state budget situation but expressing disappointment a funding proposal 'well below” the board's request.

'The board's goal was to be able to freeze tuition if we received state appropriations as requested,” Rastetter said. 'Since that has not happened, the board will immediately start discussions regarding tuition increases at our universities for fall 2016.

'Making sure Iowa students and families can afford to attend Iowa's public universities needs to be more of a priority for the Legislature. Investing now protects Iowa's future,” he added.

That sentiment was shared by Rep. Cindy Winckler, D-Davenport, who voted against the proposed education budget bill that she called 'woefully inadequate” and 'troubling.”

'This certainly puts families and students squarely in the bull's eye of having to find more resources to fund their higher education and yet we have little options for need-based aid in the state,” said Winckler, who noted students now bear about 60 percent of the cost of Iowa's public colleges. 'We do place such a high emphasis on a well-skilled workforce and a lot of responsibilities on our post-secondary educational institutions, yet we're walking away from our responsibilities with that.”

Dolecheck said more state money was divided among Iowa's higher-education institutions with the help of about $3 million of uncommitted carry-over funds that had been allotted to National Guard scholarships that went unused due to decreased military deployments that in turn meant less demand for those resources. The scholarship fund still will get $2.1 million in fiscal 2017.

Dolecheck said the surplus carry-over made it possible to provide targeted increases higher than originally anticipated but he added 'it may not be adequate to allow them to hold tuition steady” at regent universities and community colleges next school year. That decision would be up to the various institutions, he said, adding that he hoped tuition increases 'would be very minimal” if enacted.