ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, March 30, 1996 TAG: 9604010012
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: Associated Press
Gov. George Allen said Friday he will seek a tuition freeze through the year 2000 at state colleges and universities, which have the second-highest in-state tuitions in the country.
Allen said he will support a General Assembly budget provision that would freeze the costs for the next two years. He also proposed that the freeze be continued through the year 2000, two years after he leaves office.
``It was getting so only the wealthy could afford college,'' the Republican governor told about 700 high school delegates to the YMCA's Model General Assembly. ``What we did this year needs to be built upon.''
The General Assembly included a tuition freeze for undergraduates from Virginia in the 1996-98 budget that is awaiting Allen's signature. Allen has capped the annual growth of tuition at about 3 percent for the last two years and had sought a similar cap in the 1996-98 budget he sent the assembly.
The boards of visitors for Virginia Tech and Radford universities already have agreed not to increase tuition costs next year.
Tech spokesman Larry Hincker said the reason tuition increased significantly in the first place was because state aid had dropped.
"Tuition freezes are a fine idea, as long as the state continues to help finance public education so that it's available to all," he said. "In the end, Virginia still ranks 43rd in the nation for student support."
Allen said he hopes including the freeze in his proposed 1998-2000 budget will make his successor think twice before reneging on it. Allen will propose that budget shortly before he leaves office in January 1998.
``I think it is a good precedent; and whenever and if ever somebody says they ought to start jacking up tuition, they are doing it at their own peril,'' he said after addressing the students and their advisers.
The governor estimated the tuition freeze would save students and their families $4,419 over the course of a four-year education.
Asked if schools might try to make up for the loss of tuition increases by raising other fees, Allen said it would be up to their boards of visitors.
Allen credited the General Assembly for responding to his request to hold down tuition costs and said he hopes this is just the beginning.
``I'd like to see us being in the top quarter as far as affordability, rather than one of the least affordable,'' he said.
Virginia has the second-highest tuition for in-state students at public colleges and universities, behind Vermont.
Staff writer Lisa Applegate contributed to this story.
LENGTH: Medium: 52 linesby CNB