THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, November 15, 1995 TAG: 9511150218
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PHILIP WALZER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines
The state agency overseeing colleges proposed the sweetest offer Tuesday that Virginia's students have heard in recent years: No tuition increases for the next two years.
Not even a penny more.
The agency, the State Council of Higher Education, recommended that state-supported colleges be forced to freeze tuition and fees for students from Virginia during the next two years. For out-of-state students, annual increases would be limited to the rate of inflation.
The plan is the toughest yet in the recent groundswell to hold down college costs. It must be approved by Gov. George F. Allen and the General Assembly.
Steve Janosik, the state's deputy secretary of education, did not endorse the plan Tuesday, but he said the Allen administration would seriously consider it. ``The governor is very interested in controlling education costs,'' Janosik said.
Under former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, tuition soared more than 40 percent as colleges sought to make up a 20 percent cut in state funding. That lifted the state's tuition levels to among the highest in the country.
When Allen took over, he lobbied successfully for a tuition cap, limiting annual increases to the rate of inflation both last school year and this year.
He has also promoted a ``tuition contract,'' which would guarantee students that annual increases forevermore would not exceed inflation. The contract was endorsed by the state council in September and also must be approved by legislators early next year.
But council officials said Tuesday that they needed to do more to clamp down on costs to make colleges more affordable for Virginians.
``What you have in front of you is the possibility of doing something better for Virginia,'' associate director Donald J. Finley said. ``This is based simply on the fact that it is very expensive for the people of Virginia to go to institutions of public education.''
The council's chairman, Val S. McWhorter, said of the tuition freeze: ``We thought the contract was good news. This is great news for students of Virginia.''
Yet the council only narrowly approved the measure, by a 5-to-4 vote. Critics complained that the freeze would limit the ability of colleges to finance their needs and would force the state to ante up more for colleges.
``I don't know how reasonable that is,'' member Kate O. Griffin said. ``You're putting the General Assembly in a bigger bind.''
Another member, John D. Padgett, a Norfolk lawyer, said the plan went ``too far, too fast.'' He said the council should stick with the inflation caps in the ``contract'' because ``both students and taxpayers have to make some sacrifices.''
The tuition freeze is part of the council's budget recommendations to Allen for the 1996-98 biennium. The agency is seeking an additional $197 million in money for colleges for the next two years, about half for faculty salary increases. That does not include state funding for financial aid.
Under the proposal approved Tuesday, increases in enrollment and increases in tuition and fees for out-of-state students would raise $57 million in the next two years. The state would have to chip in the remaining $140 million to meet the $197 million goal.
But if the state allowed inflationary tuition increases for both Virginians and non-Virginians, that would raise an additional $37 million. Under that scenario, the state would have to kick in only $103 million. The state now gives the colleges about $1.6 billion every two years.
Janosik said Allen wants to increase college funding, but has not yet decided the amount.
KEYWORDS: COLLEGE TUITION by CNB