Higher education in Minnesota has become a bottomless money pit

The Oct. 12 editorial, “Be wary of promises to freeze tuition,” stated that “the DFL-controlled 2013 Legislature vowed to reverse that [funding cut] trend when it added $230 million to higher education appropriations for the ensuing two years.” The editorial failed to mention that the Legislature also ordered Minnesota State to freeze tuition (and asked the constitutionally autonomous Board of Regents at the University of Minnesota to do the same) and that the freeze was paid for with new recurring funding to the base budget.

Now, a Minnesota State Workgroup on Long-Term Financial Sustainability reports that “the new state funds have mostly offset the lost tuition resulting from the tuition freeze and have not been a source of new operating revenue. The overall size of the funding pie has not increased; rather, the sizes of the tuition and appropriation slices have merely shifted.”

http://www.startribune.com/higher-education-in-minnesota-has-become-a-bottomless-money-pit/398781361/