IFO's Suggested Messages to Legislators:

1. MnSCU institutions are part of the solution to the economic crisis.

• MnSCU is the system that unemployed people return to when they need further education and training for the new economy.  1/3 of our students are over age 25.   Enrollment is likely to increase as a result of the economic crisis.   Applications for next year are way up compared to this point last year. 
• MnSCU institutions graduate almost 34,000 students per year (by comparison, the U of M graduates only 14,000).   82.6% are employed in the state after they graduate.  Over 87% find jobs related to their field of study.  MnSCU produces 52% of the teachers, 82% of the nurses, 89% percent of law enforcement graduates, 41% of the business graduates—the very kind of graduates that essential to a functional society.  In addition, MnSCU provides career education to 6,000 employers and 151,000 individuals.
• MnSCU is the system that first generation college students attend to get a foothold in the modern economy.   For instance, MnSCU serves over 32,800 students of color—far more than any other system of higher education in Minnesota.  Higher education is the gateway to higher incomes and lower unemployment.
• At a time when higher education is the key to global economic competitiveness, we should not be reducing our investment in higher education.  Minnesota, once a leader in its support for higher education, now ranks 31st among the states on per capita appropriations for higher education.  While Minnesota has been resting on its laurels, states like Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, and Kentucky have surpassed us in per capita investment in higher education.

2. Appropriation cuts increase tuition.

• State appropriations have fallen behind enrollment growth and inflation in recent decades, forcing colleges and universities to rely more on tuition to replace appropriations.  This has caused tuition to skyrocket.  Average tuition and fees at state universities have increased over 94% since 2000.  MnSCU institutions now have some of the highest tuition rates in the nation for peer institutions.  In the last two years, thanks to improved funding from the legislature, tuition increases have been held to a minimum.  However, if appropriations are cut again, we will again see tuition rates skyrocket, driving students and their families further into debt and making college less affordable.

3. It is better to raise taxes on high income Minnesotans than to raise tuition on college students.

• The Department of Revenue has shown that tax rates are slightly regressive for incomes over $105,000.   High income tax payers received significant tax cuts earlier in this decade.

4. If cuts have to be made, make sure there are riders attached (like last year) to make sure a sizable share of the cuts are to the central bureaucracy—not to the campuses where education occurs.  

• Some areas of the central budget—particularly the Office of the Chancellor/Shared Services and Enterprise Technology have grown substantially in the last three bienniums, whereas Basic Institutional Allocations have remained relatively flat.