ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, January 2, 1996 TAG: 9601020160
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A4 EDITION: METRO
THE BIGGEST problem Virginia faces in higher education is finding some way to keep the cost within the means of those who have to pay for it - the student and the taxpayer, a member of the State Council of Higher Education said Tuesday.
A news story from the year just ended? Nope. The quote is from a story in this newspaper that ran Oct. 8, 1975.
And yet, if concern over the cost of going to college in Virginia has been around a while, its focus is rather different nowadays. The balance has shifted. State taxpayers' support of higher education began dropping in the late '80s, at first an outgrowth of a recession-induced fiscal crunch. Much of the slack, as Virginia students and their families well know, has been picked up by increasing tuition to levels that are among the highest in the nation for public institutions.
Some slack also has been picked up by efficiency improvements at Virginia's colleges and universities, a worthy enterprise that needs constantly to be pursued. Some was, and will continue to be, picked up from big fund-raising campaigns by those of the state's institutions - the University of Virginia, most notably - able to attract hundreds of millions in private dollars.
Unfortunately, some of the slack also has been picked up by avoiding curricular innovation (requiescat in pace, Radford's New College of Global Studies), by deferring capital outlay and maintenance, and by letting faculty pay stagnate - all of which pose long-term dangers to academic quality. As do tuition hikes themselves, if they depress diversity on campus.
The tuition caps imposed at Gov. George Allen's behest after his election in 1993 eased somewhat the problem of escalating tuition. They did nothing, however, to alleviate the money-related stress on academic quality; if anything, they made it worse.
Much attention has been paid the governor's proposal for the 1996-98 biennium to increase higher-education funding by various amounts, depending on your accounting method and whether you include the university's cost-cutting in the extra funding. Used wisely, the money could help Virginia's colleges and universities begin to diminish the threat of declining quality, especially for second- and third-tier institutions that, because they lack the first-tier schools' capacity to attract private support, are most hurt by declines in taxpayer funding.
Less noticed, but worth praise, is a budgetary provision for a plan that could address the tuition hardship in a way less threatening than outright caps to institutional finances and institutional autonomy.
Under the plan, approved by the State Council of Higher Education and ready to go into effect for the 1996-97 academic year, entering in-state students would be guaranteed that their tuition and mandatory education and general fees would rise no more than the rate of inflation for four years. Entering-student rates, as set by the boards of the individual institutions, could change every year. But once enrolled, students and their families could lay financial plans with better assurance of future costs.
It's a good idea - and one part of the governor's budget that should readily win lawmakers' assent.
LENGTH: Medium: 59 linesby CNB