News from the state Capitol about higher education appropriations has been grim - to say the least.
State Sen. John Schwarz on Friday said it is possible Michigan’s 15 public universities will experience a 3 to 5 percent decrease in state funding next year.
The Battle Creek Republican, who is chairman of the Senate Higher Education Appropriations Subcommittee, said the best universities could hope for is no change in funding - but chances of that are slim.
Experts have predicted tough economic waters ahead and their warnings have become reality. Schwarz’s statements came days after the Senate Fiscal Agency forecasted a $1.4 billion deficit in the next state budget cycle.
The time has come for students and university leaders to brace themselves for the economic tidal wave that has set its course in our direction.
Schwarz’s statement sealed the coffin on MSU’s Tuition Guarantee, which once promised MSU’s Board of Trustees wouldn’t raise tuition rates above the predicted rate of inflation.
While MSU’s guarantee once benefited from the fruits of prime economic times, the apples have all gone rotten. The honeymoon was glorious, but the marriage between MSU and its guarantee is over.
Last year’s 8.9 percent increase marked the first hike since the guarantee’s inception in 1994 that tuition at MSU was raised above its promised level. The consequential increase was made possible by a June 2000 amendment to the guarantee, which hung tuition decisions on state funding levels.
There isn’t much we can do to avoid the hardships that lay before us.
Students best start saving money in places they hadn’t considered.
MSU’s bean counters best start figuring out where cuts can be made.
And state lawmakers best start figuring out how to get more money into higher education. A great start would be repealing the Tuition Tax Credit - a measure that should have been easily passed last year.
Although university spokesman Terry Denbow promised Friday on the radio show State News Live that MSU wouldn’t consider raising tuition as much as the 28 percent hike approved by leaders at Central Michigan University, lesser amounts above the 8.9 percent raise by the board last year are almost equally unsettling.
The decisions made by MSU leaders in the near future are not going to be easy - somebody somewhere stands to be hurt by the choices. It is our hope those choices hurt as few people as possible.
If tuition is raised too much, many students will not be able to survive the costs. And if budget cuts are slashed too deep, the quality of education in certain areas stands to wither.
The best we can hope is that administrators and trustees make the right decisions and place as little burden as possible on the students they are charged with educating.
