House panel approves college hike

College students around Louisiana could face larger tuition costs that steadily increase for four years, if lawmakers agree to a bill approved last week by the House Education Committee.

The committee agreed to a proposal pushed by the Board of Regents, which governs higher education in Louisiana, that would let public universities and colleges raise tuition from 3 percent to 5 percent each year for four years.

The maximum tuition increase would be based on a formula devised by the board that looks at how the individual schools stack up against their peer institutions in the South.

Commissioner of Higher Education Joe Savoie said Louisiana’s colleges are falling behind their peers in the amount of money they have for operating costs and improvements. He said the tuition increases would be a “stopgap, cost-of-living adjustment” to help the schools compete with those in neighboring states, improve quality and retain professors.

“Part of this really is to try to not slip further behind,” Savoie said.

No one on the committee spoke against the proposal, and it passed without objection. Leaders of the state’s university systems sat in the hearing room in support of the measure. Several student government leaders from the colleges spoke in favor of the bill.

“We support and stand behind this bill wholeheartedly because we know what increased funding will do for our institutions,” said Carey Ash, president of Southern University’s student government association and chairman of the Louisiana Council of Student Body Presidents.

The bill heads next to the House’s budget committee for review.

Increases in tuition require a two-thirds vote of the Legislature. Louisiana is the only state in the country that requires such approval for tuition hikes at public colleges.

If approved by the Legislature, the largest tuition increase would fall on students at LSU’s main campus in Baton Rouge.

Tuition there could grow by $234 a year for the first year and could be as much as $1,000 a year larger by the 2011-2012 school year, the final year for increases under the bill by Rep. Don Trahan, R-Lafayette, chairman of the education committee.

Other first year increases would range from $44 for students at the campuses of the Louisiana Technical College to $185 for students at Northwestern Louisiana University in Natchitoches. Students at the state’s two-year community colleges could see increases of between $58 to $74.

Savoie said two-thirds of Louisiana’s college students won’t have to pay the increases because their tuition is covered through the state’s free tuition program, known as TOPS, or from other financial sources, such as grants and scholarships.

The increase in tuition will cost the state, through the TOPS program, anywhere from $3.5 million to more than $7 million in the upcoming budget year, growing each year.

The Legislature gave similar authority to colleges and universities in 2001, allowing a 3 percent annual increase in tuition for four years, but that authority expired.

The universities also are asking lawmakers to do away with the requirement that tuition increases get approval from the Legislature entirely. Several members of the House Education Committee spoke in favor of that bill, by House Speaker Jim Tucker, R-Terrytown, which is expected to be debated by a separate House committee next week.

“Let’s get rid of the legislative meddling,” said Rep. Hollis Downs, R-Ruston.

However, Savoie said he expects it will be tough to get Tucker’s bill passed.

“It’s a very difficult request for them to give up their oversight. That’s why it’s going to be challenging,” Savoie said.