For the second time in two weeks, state Rep. Rob Kreibich, R-Eau Claire, is proposing a major overhaul in the way the UW System operates.
Kreibich, the chair of the Assembly’s Committee on Colleges and Universities, unveiled a plan Thursday calling for a strict cap on tuition in the next two years at all UW System schools.
Under the proposal, tuition increases would be capped at 3 percent in each of the next two years, a sharp decline from the 37.5 percent tuition increase experienced in the last budget period.
The UW System took a $250 million cut in state funding in Gov. Jim Doyle’s 2003-05 budget, a reduction necessitated by a $3.2 billion state deficit. With a $1.6 billion deficit remaining, Kreibich said a cap is necessary to ensure the governor and legislators do not continue to jeopardize access to the university system.
“A tuition cap will force the state to debate the value of higher education on the same playing field with other state agencies that rely almost exclusively on state support for their existence,” Kreibich said in a statement.
Doyle will present his 2005-07 budget to the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee next Tuesday. Between that time and the budget’s final adoption in summer 2005, Kreibich hopes to hold several listening sessions at state universities to get student input on the tuition-cap proposal.
Kreibich’s tuition plan ends a busy two-week period for the Eau Claire assemblyman. He disclosed an initiative in late January calling for the merger of the state’s 13 two-year colleges with its 13 four-year universities, a move Kreibich said would save the system in administrative costs.
The UW Board of Regents has proposed a tuition increase of 4.3 percent in the next year so long as the state shows an increased commitment to higher education.
UW Regent Peggy Rosenzweig said Kreibich’s tuition cap deserves serious consideration, comparing the 3 percent benchmark to the 4.6 percent inflation rate.
“[Kreibich] certainly has his heart in the right place … by wanting to keep the tuition rate down,” said Rosenzweig, who serves on the Board of Regents’ Business and Finance Committee. “I understand his goal, and I am sympathetic to his goal.”
— Matthew Dolbey contributed to this report
