A bill was introduced in Congress last week to combat rising tuition costs - an admirable goal. Unfortunately, everything attached to the bill shows complete detachment from the problem. The bill lacks any plan to address the causes behind rising tuition, and the proposed solutions are both economically unsound and harmful.
California Republican Howard McKeon sponsored the bill, which aims to force universities to be responsible for their expenses, at the risk of losing federal funding. There are several reasons for higher tuition, however, and Rep. McKeon's bill provides no solutions - it only offers a punishment.
Universities have raised tuition costs recently for many reasons. Rising state and federal deficits force university spending cuts and force them to turn to students to make up the rest. Schools must deal with rising costs of health care and utility rates, and rarely set their own tuitions. Many public universities also have their tuitions set by their governors.
The government now claims that after pulling money out and causing schools to raise tuition, the solution is to pull more money. This flies in the face of all reason.
The basis of the bill is to force tuition to follow the rigid rates of inflation. Not only is that economically irresponsible, but it is logistically impossible. Many universities have their expenses tied in with inflation, so raises increase across the board. Forcing schools to adhere to tight restrictions that do not relate at all to the problems they must face is counterintuitive and economically unsound.
Funding for colleges and universities comes from many different places, and there are different balances between public and private funding. The schools that do rely on public funding are in place to provide a quality education for everyone, regardless of financial status. Schools that raise costs for students do so because of less government spending. By threatening to pull out more money, it puts school in an unnecessary bind that will make them choose between rocks and hard places.
It is never easy for a public university to raise tuition costs, as they must balance prices with their commitment to providing education. If the government were actually committed to lowering costs, it would attack and attempt to remedy the causes, mainly health care rates and utilities. Health care is a very complex issue. Politicians, especially Republicans, have scoffed at the idea of providing universal health care, which in this instance would save the universities and government millions of dollars.
Recognizing the problem of high tuition is usually the first step toward a path of solution, but the proposed bill is a disaster. If in place, it would deal irrevocable harm to universities. Removal of even more public funding would only force more cuts and lead the nation's students into even further debt .
This bill is an attack on the future of universities, focusing specifically on public universities and small trade schools. In light of the current financial woes facing many universities, forcing them to curb spending while not helping them is negligent. If tuition levels remain constant, or even go down, it will not be because of the government forcing caps, it will be from curing the causes of the hikes. This bill is a poorly planned - and even more poorly executed - plan that will only make the problem it is supposed to address worse.
Photo: Courtesy of SUNY
