
DATE: Monday, May 12, 1997                  TAG: 9705120034

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY PHILIP WALZER, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  163 lines

VIRGINIA TUITION FREEZE COLLEGES CAUGHT IN A FUNDING BIND AN EXTENDED FREEZE WOULD PLEASE POLITICIANS AND THE PEOPLE, BUT IT COULD COST MILLIONS OF DOLLARS.

Should the state extend its freeze on college tuitions, which are among the highest in the nation?

Gov. George F. Allen's answer is a resounding yes.

``Although there are those who do not mind skyrocketing tuition,'' he said in a statement last week reiterating his support for continuing the freeze, ``I am going to keep my promise to the people to make a college education affordable for deserving students and their families.''

The freeze has strong appeal for other politicians - both gubernatorial candidates have already signaled their support - as well as parents and students. But two members of the State Council of Higher Education who recently resigned, as well as many college officials, are voicing hesitation.

Their concern: If Allen extends the freeze through the year 2000, it will take much-needed money from the colleges, which are still recovering from state budget cuts of the early '90s.

The decision on whether to extend the freeze - which is set to expire at the end of the 1997-98 school year - won't be made until early 1998. That's when the General Assembly reconvenes to draft the state's 1998-2000 budget.

But the debate has already begun and is likely to intensify as the year goes on. And it turns on an uncomfortable tradeoff: What's good for the taxpayer might be bad for the colleges.

That's because Virginia colleges are beset with twin fiscal problems: high tuition and low state support.

The universities rank among the most expensive in the country in terms of tuition and fees - at about $4,000 a year - and among the eight lowest in terms of state aid per student.

``I'm a little bit reluctant to put ourselves in the circumstance where we're guaranteeing not increasing tuition when we don't know what will happen with state funding,'' said James V. Koch, president of Old Dominion University. ``I'd like to get out of the top 10 in tuition, but I'd also like to see us get out of the bottom 10 in terms of state funding.''

Along with the freeze for the 1996-98 school years, Allen and the legislature approved an increase in college aid of more than $230 million. What worries college supporters is the Allen administration's refusal to commit to another big funding increase for 1998-2000, to compensate for money they could make by raising tuition.

``I have asked at public meetings whether the executive is committed to providing the funding to support the freeze,'' said Northern Virginia lawyer Val S. McWhorter, one of the state council members who recently stepped down. ``The silence has been deafening.''

McWhorter was the only Democrat - and the only member not appointed by Allen - on the state council.

But state Education Secretary Beverly H. Sgro said: ``We don't make commitments until we're further along in the budgeting process. It's very much premature to talk about this.''

However, she said, it's not premature to promise to extend the freeze - which covers tuition but not fees - because parents need time to figure financing plans. ``We're deeply committed to accessibility for all students in the commonwealth,'' Sgro said.

The first phase of the debate has begun at the state council, the Virginia agency overseeing colleges.

The council's budget committee endorsed a freeze, with little discussion, last month. The endorsement also asked for an additional $39 million from the state. That, the agency calculated, would be the amount of money raised by the colleges over the next two years if they approved tuition increases equal to the rate of inflation.

But in response to the concerns of the state's college presidents, council members will hear the presidents' representatives within the next few months and take another vote. The council usually passes on its budget recommendations for the college system to the governor and legislature in the fall.

Under former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, the state cut college funding by more than 20 percent. But it allowed colleges to counteract the reductions with hefty increases in tuition and fees, which rose more than 40 percent during his four-year tenure.

When Allen took over, he capped annual tuition-and-fee increases from 1994 to 1996 at the rate of inflation. The idea of a freeze came from the state council, which recommended it in the fall of 1995.

The General Assembly and Allen approved the freeze for the 1996-97 and 1997-98 school years. It applies only to undergraduates from Virginia and does not apply to fees, such as those for student activities and health services. Overall, tuition and fees for in-state undergraduates rose less than 2 percent last year.

Before he leaves office in January, Allen will unveil his proposal for the state's 1998-2000 budget. Legislators will revise it and then send it to Allen's successor, who will be able to make changes before passing it back to the legislature for final approval.

Norfolk lawyer John D. Padgett, the vice chairman of the council, said he hopes that the freeze will be continued and that the state will ante up the extra $39 million. ``I have no intention of strapping the colleges and universities with inflationary costs,'' he said.

Sen. Stanley C. Walker, a Norfolk Democrat who is co-chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said he also supports maintaining the freeze and increasing college funding. If that doesn't happen, McWhorter has suggested an alternative:

Allow colleges to increase tuition by 2.8 percent - roughly the rate of inflation - in each of the next two years. That would increase tuition for the average student about $90 a year, the agency has calculated.

And that, McWhorter said, would be a reasonable increase. ``I have never felt that Virginians wanted the cheapest education in the country,'' he said. ``They have wanted the best value.''

Alan I. Kirshner, an insurance executive from Glen Allen who also left the state council, has also called for inflation-level increases, from a business standpoint: ``If you don't keep up with inflation, you're going to wake up and be so underpriced that you're in trouble.''

But Kate Obenshain Griffin, a council member and chairwoman of its budget committee, said, ``I don't think that increase is minimal to college students and their parents who are having a tough time now paying for a college degree. Virginia has one of the highest tuitions in the country, and any increase is significant.''

Griffin is a former education adviser to Allen and former director of program development for the Young America's Foundation, a Northern Virginia group that promotes conservative causes on campuses.

Gordon K. Davies, the departing director of the state council, thinks the debate should be broadened to talk about long-term funding strategies for colleges. The council members last month voted to dismiss Davies as of July, after 20 years at the helm of the agency.

In the late '80s, Davies said, students paid for about one-third the cost of their education and the state paid the remainder. Now it's about 50-50.

``What you need is a rational pricing policy, and a tuition freeze is hardly a rational policy,'' he said. ``This notion of treating the two (the freeze and state funding) as severable strikes me as entirely unrealistic and inappropriate.'' Davies said he and his staff had planned to draft a funding policy, but ``I got fired before I got to that.''

David W. Breneman, an economist and dean of education at the University of Virginia, has another idea: Raise tuition, but also raise the amount of financial aid. ``A great many students come from wealthy families, and they could afford to pay more.''

That approach - known as ``high-tuition, high-aid'' - is the best way to both increase access and get ``the biggest bang for your buck,'' he said. But it hasn't taken hold on campuses. Part of the problem, said Old Dominion's Koch, who is also an economist, is that it wouldn't help part-time students, who make up a sizable segment of ODU's population but often aren't eligible for aid.

Griffin, the state council member, said she and her colleagues ``will go into these meetings (with the presidents) with open minds. But they know our commitment to students and their parents to reduce the tuition burden, or at least keeping it level.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]

James V. Koch

THE ISSUE

Should Virginia extend its tuition freeze, which expires next

year, through the year 2000?

THE PROS

Continuing the freeze would make it easier for low- and

middle-income students to go to college. Virginia ranks among the 10

states with the most expensive tuition and fees.

THE CONS

The colleges need the extra tuition revenue, especially if the

state doesn't approve additional money for the schools. Virginia

ranks among the 10 states with the lowest per-student funding for