Pawlenty/Hatch/Hutchinson Higher Education Proposals
by Russ Stanton, IFO Director of Government Relations
Higher education funding is a big issue in this fall’s elections. The two major candidates for Governor, Republican Tim Pawlenty and DFL Mike Hatch, have each put forth proposals for improved funding of higher education, but their proposals differ greatly. Legislative candidates are lining up behind each of the proposals. More recently, Independent Peter Hutchinson put forth his position on higher education funding.
In June, Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty put forth a “free tuition” proposal. The proposal is a sharply scaled back version of the Georgia “Hope Scholarship” program. Under the Pawlenty proposal, only students in the top 25% of their high school graduating class would receive two years of free tuition at a Minnesota public postsecondary institution, although students in math, science, technology and engineering could receive an additional two years. Students from households earning more than $150,000 (about 10% of households) would be ineligible for grants. On the other end of the spectrum, students from low to moderate income families who receive student financial aid would have their financial aid subtracted from the amount of free tuition.
The Pawlenty proposal would only affect about 16,000 of the approximately 250,000 students in higher education in Minnesota. Current students would not realize any benefit from the proposal, which would take effect starting fall of 2007. Even then, it would only apply to recent high school graduates and not benefit students previously enrolled or non-traditional students.
Pawlenty’s proposal would cost an estimated $112 million. He said he will pay for it out of future “budget surpluses.” The problem is that if the governor funds inflation adjustments for higher education and other state programs, there won’t be a budget surplus. The fear is that colleges and universities might have to “eat” the cost of providing free tuition.
Pawlenty says his plan is designed to create an incentive for high school students to become better prepared for college, and to stimulate interest in science, technology, engineering and math.
Critics of the governor quickly contrasted Pawlenty’s promise with his record on higher education funding. When the governor took office four years ago, he balanced the state budget by cutting appropriations to higher education and other programs rather than raising taxes. This meant cutting the MnSCU budget by $204 million and the U of M budget by $185 million. The colleges and universities then raised tuition sharpely to fill in the shortfall of state appropriations—state university students saw their tuition increase by approximately 45% during the four years of the Pawlenty administration.
Weblink:
www.timpawlenty.com
Email:
info@timpawlenty.com
Campaign Address:
PO Box 21887
Eagan MN 55121
651-905-0555
DFL gubernatorial candidate Mike Hatch has made college affordability a central issue in his campaign. He has proposed rolling back tuition levels for public college and university students to the FY 2002 levels -- filling in the lost tuition revenue with state appropriations.
Hatch proposes paying for his tuition roll-back by closing the foreign-owned corporate tax loophole created by a Supreme Court decision which allows corporations to shelter passive income from royalties, interest and dividends in overseas branches. Senate DFLers have proposed closing the loophole several times, and Pawlenty has vowed to veto it. The proposal would raise about $300 million per year.
In contrasting his proposal to that of Pawlenty, Hatch argues that his proposal would help all public higher education students, not just the top 25%. He argues that his proposal would help students currently enrolled, not just future students. Finally, he argues that he has identified the source of revenue (taxes) that will pay for the proposal.
Hatch is currently the Minnesota Attorney General. Since that office does not normally deal with higher education matters, Hatch does not have a past voting record on higher education that can be contrasted with Pawlenty’s.
Weblink:
www.hatch2006.org
Email: mike@hatch2006.org
Campaign Address:
P.O. Box 75971
St. Paul MN 55175
651-221-0883
The
Hutchinson Proposal
Independence Party candidate Peter Hutchinson says he would like to
double the number of ninth graders that become college students, although he
doesn’t really say how he would do that. Most of his proposals deal with early
childhood education and all day kindergarten.
Hutchinson said he would double that state financial aid program from $150 million to $300 million. It should be noted that the state financial aid program steers over half of the financial aid to private college students, even though these students make up only about 18% of the student population in the state. The reason for this is the state financial aid grants take into account the cost of the college a student attends, and private colleges usually cost much more than public colleges and universities.
Hutchinson says he will pay for his proposals by whittling health care costs down by 20% -- for a savings of $1.7 billion. Again, it is unclear how he would do this, and his critics say it is impossible to wring that kind of savings out of the system.
Weblink:
www.teammn.com
Email:
campaign@teammn.com
Campaign Address:
PO Box 4364
St. Paul MN 55104
612-767-4465