Teeter-tottering tuition

Indiana's Senate faces a tough decision this week as it considers S.B. 262. The bill's drab title, "Tuition rates for state universities," conceals its importance. If passed, the bill would have a major impact on the way IU, Purdue University and the other state universities set tuition rates. \nDeciding whether that impact would be in the state's best interests is difficult.\nState Sen. Luke Kenley R-Noblesville, chairman of the Senate Education Committee, said in an interview he introduced the bill in response to his constituents' concerns over "unpredictable" tuition increases in Indiana colleges. \nKenley, a third-term senator, former judge and Harvard Law school graduate, presents his case flawlessly. \nMiddle-class parents find it hard to plan their budgets around tuition numbers that fluctuate, Kenley said. Increasing costs can be hard to justify to parents who think those costs are high to begin with, he added, noting that tuition at Indiana schools has increased 110 percent over the past decade.\nS.B. 262 would require universities to announce Dec. 1 of each year, a tuition rate for the school's next freshman class. That rate would remain fixed for that class for the next four years, aside from a cost-of-living increase (as much as 4 percent annually).\nOut-of-state students would not receive the guarantee. "We have a statewide interest in the affordability of college for Indiana students," Kenley said.\nBut political decisions always carry opportunity costs. Stabilizing the price of a college education could make the state's universities less valuable as research institutions.\nKirk White, director of Hoosiers for Higher Education, IU's lobbying organization, said in a telephone interview that Kenley's bill is an understandable effort.\n"This is not a brand-new issue. It's surfaced from time to time when there has been frustration with the increases and the costs of higher education," White said. "State senators and representatives are getting concerns from their constituents, and that's exactly what we expect."\nBut, White said, Kenley's bill has significant problems.\nFirst, the Dec. 1 deadline occurs before the state's universities learn what the state will contribute to their budgets. Without knowing how much the state will spend, White said, it's impossible to budget correctly. \nKenley said last week that he would add amendments on the Senate floor creating an appeals process. After the General Assembly's adjournment, each school could request a tuition adjustment by petitioning the State Budget Committee and then, if the request received the committee's approval, the governor.\nThat proposal, White said, "adds a complicated bureaucratic process" while taking decision-making authority away from the universities, which know its own needs best.\nA misjudgment could hurt students. If the state's appropriations fell short of expectations, universities would have to allow larger classes while cutting course offerings and services, White said.\nIU and Purdue's main campuses would be particularly hurt by any cutbacks. As research universities, White noted, the schools have higher expenses than the state's other campuses, which are primarily teaching institutions. \nCuts at the research institutions would in turn harm the state's economic future. "You can think of it as investment, and any lessening of that investment is going to hurt the return," HHE assistant director Clint Merkel said.\nKenley's measure would make it easier for families to give their children a college degree, increasingly the ticket to a middle-class life. Yet it would also weaken the state's universities and impair the state's potential growth.\nHHE's position is probably in the best interests of the state. Still, it's hard to resign oneself to a policy that makes it more financially difficult to attend IU or Purdue. But, it's not the easy questions we ask the government to solve.