Legislative Notes for the week of February 12 - 16, 2007

Students rally for a tuition freeze

More than 750 students rallied at the Capitol to tell lawmakers they need a freeze - a tuition freeze. The students came from community and technical colleges and universities throughout the state. They asked legislators to support the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities biennial budget request for $177 million and an additional $73 million to hold tuition at current rates for the next two years.

The students also hosted a press conference with the legislators supporting their tuition freeze bill. Sen. David Tomassoni, DFL-Chisholm, the lead author of the Senate bill, said, "Students are graduating with a mortgage when they don't have a house." Rep. Melissa Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park, is the chief author in the House. She said she heard from students last biennium and that they were very organized and the best lobbyists she has seen. Hortman said: "The question is not, 'Can we afford to freeze tuition?' The question is, 'How can we NOT afford to freeze tuition?' "

Rep. Frank Moe, DFL-Bemidji, a professor at Bemidji State University, also supports the bill and said it is important to fund the tuition freeze on top of the system's appropriations request because "we don't want to freeze tuition at the price of quality."

OHE in the House!

The House Higher Education Committee heard from the Office of Higher Education and had many questions about Gov. Tim Pawlenty's budget recommendations. The governor seeks to remove the statute that urges the state to fund 67 percent of the educational costs, with the students picking up 33 percent. The statute was being followed in 2000, but when the state developed deficits, higher education funding was cut. System students now pay nearly 50 percent of educational costs.

"I think this is an important benchmark to have," said Rep. Melissa Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park. Chair Tom Rukavina, DFL-Virginia, said, "I think that removing this would be very unpopular with my side of the aisle."

MSCSA President Scott Formo testified on the governor's Achieve II scholarship program, which is meant to help prepare high school students for college. Under the proposal, students are rewarded for taking college courses in high school by earning money that can be later applied to tuition at a public higher education institution. Formo said that the money doesn't help the students who need it the most.

The Senate goes Gopher

The University of Minnesota presented its budget request to the Senate Higher Education Committee this week. The university's budget request includes $67 million to improve compensation, with a targeted $28.5 million to attract and retain world-class faculty. In the university's request, $24.9 million is dedicated to new initiatives to improve undergraduate writing, expand academic advising, offer more undergraduate research opportunities, increase financial support for graduate students and invest in libraries.

The request also includes $6.9 million to support technological innovations, $27.9 million for health workforce and clinical sciences education, $15.6 million for investments in advanced science and engineering education, and $11.5 million for efforts to discover solutions to urgent environmental problems.

Partnering up through P-16

Earlier this week, the House Education Finance and Economic Development Committee heard from Minnesota Department of Education Commissioner Alice Seagren, University of Minnesota President Robert Bruininks, Minnesota Office of Higher Education Director Susan Heegaard and Minnesota State Colleges and Universities Senior Vice Chancellor Linda Baer on the P-16 Partnership. The partnership brings together leaders from the various education systems and organizations in the state to streamline transitions between early education, K-12 and higher education. It also seeks to get more students ready for and into college.

Currently, the partnership has many workgroups, such as the ID working group that is implementing a tracking system to give students one number through elementary education and college. This will help the state determine which students are going to college, where they come from and if they are ready. Another working group is trying to better prepare high school students for college so they will not need to take remedial courses, which costs the students and state. The P-16 Partnership is voluntary and raises its own money for projects.

Federal Update

This week, Chancellor James McCormick and members of the Board of Trustees attended the Association of Community College Trustees National Legislative Summit in Washington, D.C. The group visited the Minnesota Congressional delegation and their higher education staff members to discuss funding higher education, increasing the Pell Grants and renewing the Higher Education Act. Specific changes to the act were rejecting the "single definition" for institutes of higher education.

Instead, it would allow the for-profit institutions to access Title III funds including TRIO, NSF and other program funds that have seen little or no recent funding increases; modifying the "Academic Competitiveness Grants" to include part-time students; and increasing the "Income Protection Allowance" for independent students without dependents from $7,000 to $10,000. The group also asked to maintain the current level of funding for the Carl D. Perkins Vocational-Technical Education Act. President Bush has proposed a 53 percent cut and eliminating Tech Prep.

Also this week, the Senate passed a $463.5 billion spending measure by a vote of 81-15 that will fund the government for the rest of fiscal year 2007 (Oct.1, 2006, to Sept. 30, 2007). The House passed the resolution at the end of January. Because the current resolution expires this week, the measure passed by the Senate was expected to head to the president for signature in order to keep the federal government operating.

The funding resolution will provide an increase of $1.17 billion for education programs over fiscal year 2006 levels. This includes an increase of $615.4 million to fund the maximum Pell grant at $4,310, which is a $260 increase.