[media-credit name=’BEN SMIDT/Herald photo’ align=’alignright’ width=’336′][/media-credit]A triumvirate of Democratic Madison state legislators introduced a plan to increase student financial aid and freeze tuition for lower-income in-state students throughout the University of Wisconsin System Monday at the Red Gym.
Rep. Spencer Black and Rep. Joseph Parisi, along with Rep. Mark Pocan, joined students from UW College Democrats and Associated Students of Madison to announce they will introduce a legislative amendment to the 2005-07 biennial budget that is currently under consideration by the Legislature.
“Your generation should not be the first generation of Americans to have less opportunity than the generation that came before you,” Parisi said of the need to address rising tuition rates.
The proposal, which Pocan plans to introduce as an amendment when the Joint Finance Committee considers UW’s budget in the coming weeks, would effectively freeze tuition for students whose family income is less than the state household median of $46,000. This would be accomplished through a $17 million increase in general purpose revenue appropriations for the Wisconsin Higher Education Grants program over the next two years.
UW tuition rose 38 percent over the last biennium as the state, struggling to cope with a $3.2 billion budget deficit cut $250 million in funding for the university system. Gov. Jim Doyle’s 2005-07 budget proposal projects an additional 14 percent tuition increase in the face of the state’s current $1.6 billion deficit.
Pocan acknowledged the realities of the budget deficit but said there is still wiggle room to address priorities such as access to higher education. He hoped the Republican-controlled JFC would recognize the economic benefits a well educated workforce provides for the state.
“I’m hoping that we can convince the legislative members of [the JCF] that as much as it’s important to invest in things like Wal-Mart and other things they put literally hundreds of millions of dollars of tax breaks into. The minimum we can do is provide a small amount to make sure all students have access to a quality education,” Pocan said.
Mike Prentiss, spokesperson for JFC co-chair Sen. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, said he is hesitant to judge the proposed legislation, especially because the lawmakers introduced it to the UW campus before mentioning it to their colleagues at the Capitol.
“I think we’d be a little cautious of any proposal that … pits the less wealthy against the even less wealthy with artificial cutoffs,” Prentiss said. “We want to make sure everyone that’s qualified … has access to higher education.”
Lawmakers need to be very careful when reviewing this, Prentiss added.
Prentiss also questioned where the legislators think they will obtain the money for an increase in state funding when the state is operating at its current deficit.
“[The legislators] have proposed spending money without coming up for a way to pay for it,” Prentiss said, adding that a “modest” tuition hike of about five percent has “pretty much been established by the Legislature.”