Friday, March 29, 2024

Guarantee of tuition freeze needed to believe it

In the State of the State Address tomorrow, Gov. Jennifer Granholm is expected to recommend public universities and community colleges temporarily freeze tuition costs to help students save money. Colleges that comply with the yearlong freeze would be compensated through funding from President Barack Obama’s stimulus plan. Granholm’s plan certainly would help students who are on a tight budget, but it’s unclear if the plan would help colleges, or even the state, to a significant degree.

Granholm’s plan relies on funding from a stimulus plan that still has to pass the Senate. Even if the stimulus plan passes, it’s unclear exactly how much money the state will receive. Michiganians are pinning many of their economic hopes to the stimulus plan and many could be disappointed. The truth is, funding probably won’t come in the form of a lump sum. It will most likely be spread out over the course of a decade. Not to mention, Michigan is only one out of 50 states that needs federal funding. Not everyone will be able to get a piece of this money. Granholm needs to make sure she knows how much money the state will receive before any major plans can be laid out. If Michigan gets less money than expected, she will have to start breaking promises and the state will have to go back to trying to solve problems on its own.

The stimulus plan isn’t intended to cure the country’s economic issues — it’s meant to help stop the bleeding. No sum of money, no matter how large, is going to fix the economy overnight. The state of Michigan needs to collectively make sure it isn’t getting ahead of itself.

Michigan may even be better off saving that funding for other plans. Major universities like MSU and University of Michigan could afford to freeze tuition and use funds from their respective endowments. Community colleges likely would still need funding from the state, but public universities would be able to freeze tuition and still operate in the short term without state funding. Granholm should focus more on lowering tuition costs over time, not temporarily freezing them.

Granholm’s plan also won’t benefit all students. Students whose parents pay their tuition won’t notice any difference and students with loans likely won’t see a major change in payments. The plan is intended to put extra money in students’ pockets, but students may not end up saving much money at all.

With the State of the State a day away, Granholm’s logic is understandable. The governor needs new ideas to help the struggling economy, but can’t be detailed with the stimulus plan in legislative limbo. Granholm has addressed an important issue, but hasn’t quite found how the issue should be solved. A temporary tuition freeze only will solve the problem temporarily. Colleges can create scholarships and recruit more students if they want to keep short-term tuition costs down. This is a good plan, but it’s not the best plan.

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