Louisiana universities one step closer to gaining tuition-setting power

University of Illinois

Louisiana’s public universities moved a step closer to gaining control over their fees and tuition levels with a bill passed Tuesday in the House Education Committee. The state is alone in requiring legislative approval of public college tuition increases.

Under current law, the imposition of a new fee or increase in an existing fee — including tuition increases at colleges — requires two-thirds approval by both the House and Senate. House Bill 194, by Speaker Pro Tem Walt Leger, D-New Orleans, would eliminate the legislative control and shift it back to the colleges’ boards of supervisors.

Leger’s bill is designed to work along with a bill by Metairie Sen. Conrad Appel to make state funding for higher education dependent on college performance, specifically retention and graduation rates as well as the potential earning power of graduates.

If universities do not meet these performance-based metrics beginning in 2015-2016, the colleges would lose the ability to increase their tuition or fees. Leger made clear Tuesday that his and Appel’s bills are a package deal; if the latter’s outcomes-based bill is not passed, Leger not take his through the legislative process.

He added his bill is meant to get the Legislature “out of the business” of tuition-setting and to provide universities with a “predictable stream of revenue” that they control.

The La. GRAD Act, approved in 2010, provides some flexibility to colleges and universities, including the ability to raise tuition by up to 10 percent per year, in return for improved student outcomes.

But Higher Education Commissioner Jim Purcell, speaking to lawmakers in January, said that while all but one of the state’s schools are meeting their GRAD Act goals, students and teachers still complain of increased strain put on educational institutions because of low tuition rates and state budget cuts.

Purcell spoke in favor of Leger’s bill in committee Tuesday while opponents of the legislation said it would allow universities to increase tuition levels to any level they wish, which could negatively affect students and their families.

If ultimately approved, Leger’s bill would also set aside 10 percent of any tuition and fee increases to offer in scholarships to students with “demonstrated financial need.”

A similar bill sponsored by state Rep. Thomas Carmody, R-Shreveport, also passed in the House and Governmental Affairs Committee on Tuesday. Rep. Joe Harrison, R-Napoleonville, proposed similar legislation last year that failed in the House.

An in-state student attending a public four-year institution in Louisiana pays the second-lowest tuition rate in the South, above only Oklahoma, according to data from the Southern Regional Education Board.