Legislators missing the point

By The Gazette Editorial Board

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Iowa's public universities have become targets for penny-wise lawmakers looking for political mileage on spending issues.

After all, the state's three large public institutions of higher learning have large budgets to match. And with rising education costs, no one can argue with making college more affordable.

But lawmakers' attempts to pressure the State Board of Regents on spending miss the point.

If they truly want to help control tuition hikes, legislators will take a closer look at the role they play in the problem.

By state law, it's the Regents' job to manage an efficient university system that uses that allocations wisely while providing the best possible educational experience. How they do that should be left up to them.

Eleven Republican legislators are co-sponsoring a bill that would prohibit Regents from approving pay raises for university presidents in any academic year in which they also raise tuition.

For the 2011-12 school year, tuition at the University of Iowa, Iowa State University and University of Northern Iowa increased between 4.7 percent and 7 percent. At the same time, presidents at those university received 4 percent salary increases - after much debate by Regents.

Legislators argue that it's irresponsible to boost salaries for administrators, who they say already are paid quite handsomely, while students and their families struggle to meet increasing education costs.

Yet it's actually the Legislature and governor's office that have had the greatest impact on tuition rates in recent years.

In fiscal year 1981, state appropriations covered more than 77 percent of the Regent universities' general education budgets, according to a Regents annual report. In FY11, state funding covered less than 40 percent of those expenses.

To compensate for the loss, Iowa's three Regents universities have done more than raise tuition. They've cut programs and consolidated departments, eliminated jobs and found other efficiencies. But those cuts haven't been enough to offset the deep gashes that lawmakers have left.

Capping even highest-paid UI President Sally Mason's $483,600 salary would have little effect on spiraling education costs, or Iowa taxpayers' bottom line.

In fact, there is much to lose if legislators prevent Iowa's universities from offering competitive compensation for top administrators - who also serve as the institutions' fundraisers in chief.

If lawmakers understand that fact, then they're simply grandstanding by signing on to House File 2128. And if they don't, it's just further evidence that they'd be better off redirecting their attention to the business of government and letting the Regents take care of their own.

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