Branstad, Reynolds offer higher education plan for Iowa

By Rod Boshart, Gazette Des Moines Bureau

DES MOINES – Gov. Terry Branstad and his running mate, Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds, traveled to college campuses Tuesday offering their plan for making higher education affordable and reducing student debt.

The GOP team proposed offering fixed-price degrees or $10,000 bachelors degree for popular major at public universities to cut costs for al limited number of in-state students and tax credits for being volunteers in qualifying community activities during stops at Iowa State University in Ames and Drake University in Des Moines.

Branstad, a five-term governor seeking re-election in the Nov. 4 general election, said he and Reynolds hoped to reduce the cost of higher education by challenging the state Board of Regents to offer $10,000 bachelors degrees on popular majors at public universities and to cut by half or more the cost of tuition in at least half of a university's major course offerings via 'fixed-price degrees.

'This is something that we think makes a lot of sense for us to do in the state of Iowa to address the concerns that students and families have about the extreme high cost of higher education today,” Branstad said during his Drake event. 'This is a concept that I believe can make a real difference.”

According to campaign spokesman Tommy Schultz, the goal would be for the four most-popular degree tracks to be attainable from start to finish with $10,000 in tuition. The initiative would utilize dual credit, online learning and other efficiencies to make this realistic and affordable for parents and students, and after feasibility studies are submitted to the regents by the universities, he said.

Branstad said the idea is modeled after successful programs in Texas and Florida and he believes the regents could make the limited offerings within their existing funding. He said a regent review is identifying savings that could be reallocated and he held out hope that overall tuition for resident undergraduate at state universities could be held to modest increase below the inflation rate.

'This is a bold approach to reducing costs and making it more affordable for our state universities,” he said.

To reduce debt that is among the nation's highest for college students, Branstad and Reynolds said they would work with the Legislature in 2015 to create a state tax credit that would allow students to reduce debt by participating in volunteer activities within their community through a qualified Student Debt Reduction Organization.

Details and specifics of the tax credit would be worked out so it would encourage community volunteerism while also maintaining the strength of other successful tax credit programs, such as the Student Tuition Organization Tax Credit, Schultz said. Branstad noted that taxpayers who contribute to the program also could deduct the charitable donation.

'This is a win-win for taxpayers and Iowa students,” he said.