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Tuition law may be having unintended consequence -- higher fees
Originally Posted Online: April 11, 2009, 6:00 pm
Last Updated: April 11, 2009, 5:59 pm
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By Pete Nickeas, Sng3@springnet1.com
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SPRINGFIELD -- When John Pauley calculated costs for his son Tyler's college education in 2006, the cost was significantly higher than when he and his wife sent their other son to Western Illinois University in 2003. "When we're all done, we'll have eight and a half years of Western. The costs do go up. I won't say it's exorbitant, but it's noticeable," said John Pauley, a Rock Island resident. Between increases in university costs and other expenses, such as housing and food, John said in those three years the price tag had jumped about $2,000 per year. To give parents a "measure of predictability" regarding the cost of education, six years ago Illinois passed a law requiring state supported schools to freeze tuition rates for four years for each incoming class of freshmen. The law had unintended consequences. It pushed tuition and fee rates up for proceeding classes as the schools dealt with shrinking state appropriations. To cope with dwindling state support for higher education, state universities are increasingly turning to students and their parents to bridge the gap. In fact, the average annual tuition increase was less than 9 percent in the five years before the law, but has spiked to more than 12 percent in the years since. 'Truth in tuition' The "truth-in-tuition" law freezes tuition for each freshman class at state schools for four years. Western voluntarily locked room, board, tuition and fee rates in 1999 for each incoming class of freshmen. When the state passed the law in 2003, they modeled it after Western's program. Students don't have to guess next year's tuition costs, which account for a large chunk of their total education expenses. But although tuition rates remain frozen, larger fees are being tacked on each year, and students and parents can only guess what the fees will amount to. Universities charge a variety of mandatory fees based on their needs. The University of Illinois at Springfield bumped next year's sports fee for all students nearly 15 percent to help cover the cost of transitioning to NCAA Division II athletics, and other universities have implemented building maintenance fees or transportation plan fees. The problem is, the costs of attending a state school are higher and are rising faster than they did before the law was passed, according to data compiled from Illinois Board of Higher Education records. Because fees aren't included in the law, schools can raise them each year, even when tuition remains frozen. The law was prompted by years of inconsistent tuition increases at state schools. Tuition hikes at state universities in the 5 years preceding the law's passage ranged from 2 percent to more than 20 percent. The law passed in 2003 with little opposition. The measure's House sponsor was state Rep. Kevin Joyce, D-Chicago, who said he introduced the bill with two goals -- giving parents and students a "measure of predictability" about their education costs and giving students who might otherwise take five years to graduate a financial kick-in-the-rear. The law only guarantees tuition for four years. "That fifth year is going to cost you big money if you don't get done," Joyce said, since the fifth year of tuition would include four years of increases. Students who complete their schooling in four years get to pay the single tuition rate all the way through. "They went further than they should've gone." Joyce said that "front-end loading," or charging a higher rate now in exchange for a flat rate for four years, should only have happened for a year or two. And the first year, the tuition increases at public schools were massive, averaging more than 18 percent in 2004. Since then average tuition rates for incoming freshmen have grown at a rate of 11 percent each year. Education officials contend that state support hasn't kept pace with inflation and has forced state universities to hike tuition and fees, using student money to bridge the gap. "I'm told by the college presidents, that one of the sort of 'deals' in the tuition freeze was that the state would continue making increased funding commitments to higher ed and that hasn't happened," said Judy Erwin, executive director of the Illinois Board of Higher Education. "It's been the opposite. So there are a lot of people who think that should've nullified the tuition freeze." Combined causes The disarray in higher education funding leads to finger pointing -- some legislators point at each other, other lawmakers at the schools and many legislators at former Gov. Rod Blagojevich. According to state Rep. Mike Bost, R-Murphysboro, a member of the House Higher Education Committee, there was a roughly two-to-one split of education dollars between K-12 education and higher education until 2002. The state's priorities shifted dramatically after Blagojevich was elected, and Illinois stopped funding higher education at the same levels as the early '90s, when state schools were funded with a mix of about 75 percent state money and 25 percent university income. State spending on higher education spiraled downward under Blagojevich's leadership. That split of university income and state spending is about 50/50 now, leaving schools to fill the gap by increasing costs to students. And since schools don't know how much state money they're going to receive four years from now -- only that it likely will be less than what they received this year -- they have to err on the side of caution when putting together next year's tuition rates. Randal Kangas, assistant vice president for planning and budgeting at University of Illinois, said the concept of locked-tuition works best when it's coupled with steady state support. But the U of I has lost about 13 percent of its annual state funding since the high-water mark in 2002, making planning four years in advance difficult, Kangas said. "To protect themselves the universities have started moving towards fees," Bost said. "It's sad, and I can't agree with it. But it's awful difficult to criticize them for doing that when they're trying to survive but the legislature's undermining them." State Rep. Shane Cultra, R-Onarga, cast one of six dissenting votes when the "truth-in-tuition" law passed out of the House in 2003. He said the law would force schools to err on the high side when looking at tuition increases. "The university doesn't know what their reimbursement from the state is going to be, what their expenses are going to be." Cultra said. "From a student standpoint, maybe it makes sense. But looking at it from the university's standpoint, they don't want to get stuck with huge increased costs and not be able to raise tuition." State Rep. Kevin McCarthy, D-Orland Park, chaired the House Higher Education Committee and voted against "truth-in-tuition" when it passed out of the House. When cuts are made or there isn't enough money for increases, he said, the likely victim is higher education. "The old story is that it's easier to hurt big kids than little kids. That sounds like a silly political axiom but it's true," McCarthy said. "Every governor runs for re-election, and they always talk about the new money they've given to K-12 schools. It's like this sacred cow. But I think the average taxpayer says 'Wait a second here, we have to tighten our budgets, they should have to tighten their budgets too.'" Increased reliance on fees. Fees at state universities are increasing at a faster rate now than they did in the five years prior to the law's passage. The average fee at a four-year state school this school year was $2,377, a 167 percent increase from 10 years prior. Though tuition grew by a similar rate - 173 percent from ten years ago -- tuition is locked for four years for each incoming class of freshmen. A freshman at U of I in 2004 paid $6,460 in tuition and $1,530 in fees. As a senior, the student still pays $6,460 in tuition, but fees jumped to $2,804 - more than an 83 percent increase. "There's no truth if you shift it over to fees, and therein lays the problem," Bost said. Lawmakers and education officials point to a backlog of maintenance on university campuses as a way to justify fees. "I know more of the universities are now putting up a fee to help with facility upgrades and maintenance. Now that's ridiculous," said state Rep. Bob Pritchard, a Hinckley Republican and the Higher Education Committee's Republican spokesman. "That's always been a part of the state's obligation." Erwin said universities have two main options for increased funding: students and the state. And because Illinois hasn't had a statewide construction program during Blagojevich's six years in office, university buildings are hurting for repairs. "Even to take care of deferred maintenance issues -- leaky roofs, boilers that are broken and all of that -- (schools) simply don't have the funds," Erwin said. Backfilling a hole Legislators expressed frustration over the apparent low priority for higher education exhibited by the last administration. Money for increases were sometimes left out of Blagojevich's budget proposals and sometimes vetoed. But even after the 2009 budget passed -- which gave higher education a small increase -- the governor asked state schools to give almost all of it back. For example, this year, Blagojevich vetoed $500,000 the legislature tacked on to the Governors State University budget for law enforcement training, and $400,000 for HIV/AIDS policy studies at Chicago State University. The legislature didn't restore that money. Legislators who mentioned repealing the law - which would give individual universities control over their tuition from year-to-year - didn't think the political will exists to change the law despite unintended consequences. "Unless we go into a crisis mode or the people go into a berserk, screaming fit, (then) no. We, the 14 legislators who actually represent schools, universities, yeah, we'll scream," Bost said. "But we're like the voices crying in the wilderness." Joyce said he has considered trying to get fees written into the law, though support for that idea seems scant among higher education committee members, who would have to approve any amendment to the law before it reached the General Assembly for a vote. "You have some of the smartest people in the world at our universities, some of the smartest people in the world at the University of Illinois in particular," Joyce said. "You're telling me they can't figure out how to budget for two years or three years or four years at a time?" 
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