THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 18, 1996 TAG: 9602170007
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Short : 45 lines
Virginia's state colleges and universities are among the most expensive in the nation. In fact, tuition costs at four-year, nondoctoral schools in the Old Dominion are second only to Vermont's.
This is nothing new. Traditionally, Virginia has used a high-tuition, low-state support model for funding higher education. An unwritten formula guiding decisions for the past 30 years dictated that the state would fund about 70 percent of the cost of educating a student while tuition would cover about 30 percent.
Former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder began tinkering with that formula in the early 1990s - placing more of the burden on students. His successor, Gov. George Allen, has whittled state support even further. To maintain quality education, colleges and universities have been raising tuition.
As a result, the funding formula has shifted. The State Council of Higher Education in Virginia now estimates that Virginia is paying only about 60 percent of the cost of higher education and students are picking up the tab for 40 percent.
This is bad news. The whole purpose of having state-supported colleges is to offer students a first-rate education at a reasonable cost.
To remedy the crunch in tuition costs, Governor Allen has included a tuition cap in his budget. This would prevent schools from raising tuition more than the cost of inflation during the next five years. Good idea.
Yet the governor proposes to increase spending on higher education by just $105 million. That goes part of the way toward balancing the equation - but not far enough. College presidents from across the state have asked the General Assembly to add another $340 million to Allen's proposal. After six years of underfunding higher education, an additional $445 million would lift Virginia's per-student funding to the level of other Southern schools.
We applaud the governor's efforts to hold down the cost of tuition. But the cost of providing quality higher education is considerable. Fair play dictates that the state reach a little deeper into its pockets to help make up the shortfall that will result from capping tuition. by CNB