With any luck, Michigan universities will soon see state aid increase with the repeal of the failed tuition tax credit. The state House could take up the issue this week after the Senate voted to repeal the measure Wednesday, putting students and parents a step closer to tuition reductions.
In an unusual move, MSU President M. Peter McPherson sent out an e-mail to students in response, asking them to write to their state representative and urge them to vote for the repeal. The university also plans to enlist alumni in this quest.
It’s not often - quite rare in fact - a university will attempt to use its student body to achieve a political goal. Usually politics are left to those who wish to practice them, to both the institution’s credit and discredit.
But this is a worthwhile move that could serve to activate otherwise apathetic students to support a great cause.
Not to mention it’s very politically savvy.
The tuition tax credit is given to students attending college in-state where tuition increases are kept below the rate of inflation. But only 17 community colleges and one public four-year university qualified for it last year. MSU was not among them.
A repeal of the tax credit would benefit colleges around the state, helping to ease tuition increases that ranged from 6.5 percent to 19 percent this year.
If the tax credit is repealed, MSU administrators have said the previous 8.9 percent tuition increase would be reduced to 6 percent. A student taking 15 credits would receive a $75 refund for the fall semester, and a $75 tuition reduction in the spring.
By all analysis, the tuition tax credit was a failure. Few schools qualified for the credit because state funding to most universities made it nearly impossible to restrain tuition increases and keep up with rising costs. The tax credit failed to be an incentive to keep tuition costs down.
While opponents might say most families will have to pay more in taxes, it’s important to realize they’ll pay the same amount - if not more - through tuition hikes.
Kudos to the Senate for being progressive enough to take this tax credit down. During the years it has been in effect, it has done little but hinder most universities and given only a negligible amount of aid to a few college students.
We encourage the House to follow suit and share the foresight our senators have displayed.
To that end, students should follow McPherson’s urging and write their state legislator to ensure this tax credit is ended. Students can find their representative and the address to write to at www.house.state.mi.us/locate.html. Students who are not registered to vote in Michigan are encouraged to write House Speaker Rick Johnson, R-LeRoy.
It could be the start of a great trend for a university president to rally students around a good cause, and should occur more often. Perhaps in doing so,students will become more politically active and informed of what’s going on in their community.
