All Montanan’s should get involved with tuition talks

Given recent news reports, you might not know we are in the middle of a four-year tuition freeze at most state colleges and universities. The Montana University System received some media coverage a couple of weeks ago for discussing what might happen if the state were to reduce college and university funding in the 2011-12 and 2012-13 academic years.

Discussing potential issues and possible solutions is only prudent. Unfortunately, sometimes even the fact that a discussion occurred makes news. In this case, one of the “what ifs” that made the news was the subject of tuition.

For most of the last 25 years, the state has steadily reduced state-funded appropriations (in constant dollars) per student, so the Board of Regents routinely consider whether it will be necessary to make up the difference. Fortunately, with strong support from the governor and the Legislature, through the College Affordability Plan, the Board of Regents has kept tuition frozen at fall 2006 levels on nine of the 11 public campuses. Tuition at those nine units will remain frozen at the fall 2006 level through spring 2011.

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The regents’ Reform Workgroup meetings are publicly noticed on the http://www.mus.edu Web site. Keeping college affordable in Montana is an interest we all share. We invite all interested citizens, especially students, to join us in this effort.

Sheila Stearns

Full Story: http://missoulian.com/news/opinion/columnists/article_adf2bcec-ef3b-11de-b6d2-001cc4c03286.html