Tuition rules cross neighboring state boundaries

College tuition for in-state students is often lower than for out-of-state students, but a concept called reciprocity allows individuals from certain counties of Kentucky and Ohio to pay in-state tuition when enrolled in nearby public colleges in Indiana.

According to IU Southeast’s website, “State tuition reciprocity agreements are arrangements between two or more states where the citizens of a defined region in one state can enroll at identified institutions in another state for a reduced tuition charge.”

Jon Gubera, associate commissioner for policy at the Indiana Commission for Higher Education, said the Indiana-Kentucky agreement allows Kentucky residents within 30 miles of designated Indiana state-run colleges to receive in-state tuition if they choose to attend school in the Hoosier state.

Four schools in Indiana participate in the agreement with Kentucky, including IU-Southeast and Southern Indiana University. Six Kentucky schools participate, including University of Louisville and Northern Kentucky University.

Larry MacIntyre, IU spokesman, said out-of-state tuition represents the total cost of education.

In-state tuition rates, sometimes less than a third of out-of-state rates, as is the case with IU-Bloomington, are made possible by state government subsidies.

A concern with reciprocity is the idea that an out-of-state student who is granted in-state tuition is using Indiana resident tax payer dollars to subsidize their education. Likewise, an Indiana student may be viewed as utilizing Kentucky or Ohio taxpayer dollars to finance their education.

“The whole idea is to have parity ... that we have a one-to-one ratio of our kids going there to their kids coming here,” Gubera said. “Although there is almost the same number of Indiana students who attend school in Kentucky as Kentucky students attending school in Indiana, parity is not a requirement in current reciprocity agreements, but a goal of each state.”

This notion is not as evident in Indiana’s agreement with Ohio, which began in 2004. Gubera said the University of Cincinnati was recently added to help level out a parity problem.

There are currently nine Ohio colleges in the Indiana-Ohio agreement and four Indiana schools, including IU-East and Ball State University.

“Historically, during this contract with Ohio, there are far more Ohio kids coming over here then Indiana kids going over there,” Gubera said.

Even though Gubera said the parity was still far off, the addition of University of Cincinnati helped.

Gubera said the Indiana Commission for Higher Education has attempted to establish similar reciprocity agreements with Illinois and Michigan.

“Both of them (Michigan and Illinois) require their state legislator to allow it, and apparently neither one to date has the desire to do so,” Gubera said.

Tomorrow’s story will discuss State Sen. Joe Zakas’, R-11th District, bill - No. 591 - on the topic.