LAST MONTH, Gov. Mark R. Warner proposed letting Virginia's public colleges and universities raise tuition rates by up to five percent. And, last Tuesday, the Governor amended his budget proposal to allow tuition increases in excess of five percent. The catch, of course, is that the overwhelming majority of this increase will go straight to Richmond. Make no mistake - the Warner proposal is nothing more than a carefully targeted tax on college students and their families. It imposes a surcharge on tuition that flows immediately to state coffers. While there has been no lack of press coverage of the Warner plan, there has been a shocking lack of explanation as to why the Warner plan is simply bad public policy.
The Warner plan is a regressive tax. The tuition increase will affect all students and families exactly the same. That is, a student or family earning $20,000 per year is charged the same amount as a student or family earning $100,000 per year. We do our best in this country to implement a progressive tax system. That is, the government expects those who earn more to pay a larger percentage of their income in taxes. The Warner tuition plan hits low-income students and families the hardest. The cost of a college education already is prohibitive enough for these families. Do we really want to price many of these students out of the market altogether?
The Warner plan degrades the autonomy of Virginia's public colleges and universities. For years, Virginia's public system of higher education has faced rising costs while being legislatively unable to charge higher tuition. In-state tuition rates have remained constant at $4,335 since the General Assembly froze tuition in 1995-1996. Removing the tuition freeze while both mandating that any increase in revenues accrue to the state, as well as cutting state higher education appropriations, hinders the fiscal autonomy of Virginia's colleges and universities. If the state intends to cut state appropriations (20.6 percent of U.Va. revenues) while extorting the funds from any increase in tuition (22.4 percent of U.Va. revenues), it places the Virginia system of higher education in a precarious budgetary state.
The Warner plan shifts political blame from Richmond to Virginia's colleges and universities. The day may come when colleges and universities are able to regain control of their fiscal future. However, the pain and stigma of tuition increases already will have set in. Four or five years down the road, few people will remember that it was Warner who raised tuition. Rather, colleges and universities will take the blame for rising tuition rates. If Warner is truly looking to put more money into state coffers, why not reduce state appropriations by an even larger amount and let colleges and universities regain control of their tuition revenues? The short answer is that Warner is unwilling to face the political cost of even more dramatic cuts in state appropriations to higher education.Instead, he wants to play a shell game by cutting state funding and taxing Virginia's students and families to increase state revenues.
It is not Warner's fault we are in the mess we are in. Tough times call for tough measures and Warner has very difficult decisions to make. But tough times are no excuse for poorly planned policies. If Warner is to be the man of character he claimed to be during the election, he should not try to hide behind regressive taxes and fiscal trickery. In doing so, he only returns to the bad public policies of his predecessor.
Virginia's colleges and universities must take their share of pain in this budget crisis. But, in doing so, we need more autonomy over our fiscal future, not less. The gig is not up yet. Warner's plan still must be approved by the General Assembly. All of us must heed a call to action to make our viewpoints known. So far, it seems that the University community does not have much of a viewpoint. Board of Visitors member Charles Carvati Jr. recently exclaimed, "Do the students understand what this is all about?"
I strongly encourage all students, faculty, staff and parents to make their views known and contact the governor's office and their local legislators. The Governor's office can be reached at http://www.governor.state.va.us/Contact/email_form.html and General Assembly members can be reached at http://conview.state.va.us/whosmy/constinput.asp. If nothing else, cut and paste the three reasons above and e-mail them to your elected officials. If we sit silently by, we only become victims of our own ignorance and complacency.
(David A. Wolcott is doctoral student at the Curry School of Education.)
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