(Iowa Capital Dispatch) An Iowa Sente panel gave initial approval Monday to legislation freezing tuition for students heading to state universities starting in 2027.
Senate File 2002 would freeze tuition for resident students entering their first year at a public university, ensuring their payments won’t go up in the following years. If passed, the legislation would go into effect for students starting their first year of college during or after 2027.
Sen. Jesse Green, R-Boone, chaired the subcommittee and was joined by Sen. Herman Quirmbach, D-Ames, and Sen. Kerry Gruenhagen, R-Walcott.
“It sounds like an interesting idea, but there are a host of problems with implementing it,” Quirmbach said. “It may actually wind up costing people more.”
A bill signed into law last year by Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds required the Iowa Board of Regents explore potential tuition freezes at Iowa’s public universities. The board completed its study and submitted a report on its findings in November.
According to the report, tuition rate guarantees come with both benefits to students and families and risks for the institutions, mainly revenue erosion and the potential of budget shortfalls and limited ability to provide financial aid and support services to those who need it.
Members of the board of regents agreed to hold back on implementing any new tuition programs until they could see the results of a cap on tuition increases they previously approved that limits tuition increases to no more than the three-year rolling average of the Higher Education Price Index inflation rate.
Jillian Carlson, a state relations officer for the board of regents, cited the study during the subcommittee meeting, saying each state university has “significantly lower” tuition costs than their peer groups’ averages. Many institutions that have implemented tuition freezes have since ended those programs, she said, when economic downturns occur and state support shrinks.
Quirmbach said the board of regents is “doing a responsible thing trying to keep tuition rising too fast” with the tuition cap, and looking back over the past couple of decades, a “failure of the state to maintain support” has driven tuition increases.
If universities can’t raise tuition but still need to balance their budgett, Quirmbach said they would have to frontload charges, making tuition for first-year students higher than it would be otherwise but not increasing it during their undergraduate education. However, for students who drop out after one or two years, he said they’d be saddled with more debt but without the degree to help pay it back.
Students who switch programs while in college would also pose a complication in a tuition freeze, Quirmbach said, as many programs have different tuition levels to deal with program-specific expenses.
“I think if we want to give our families a predictable path for paying for college, we’ve got to keep up our end of the deal and maintain constant support,” Quirmbach said.
Both Green and Gruenhagen expressed interest in seeing the board’s report, and passed the legislation to the full Senate Education Committee in order to keep talks on the topic going.
“I believe it’s worth continuing the conversation, but I do look forward to seeing that study,” Gruenhagen said.
