Major Hit to UND Enrollment Forthcoming?

[star2city]

Pawlenty wants free tuition for good students

Gov. Tim Pawlenty laid out a proposal Tuesday to have the state pick up two years or more of college tuition for students who are in the top 25 percent of their graduating class or score above a certain level on a college entrance exam. The offer would apply to graduates who go to a public university in the state.

...

The first two years' tuition would be covered as long as the student keeps a B average and a full slate of classes. The rest would depend on the field of study students choose. Students majoring in science, technology, engineering and mathematics could qualify for continued state help.

With 35% (?) of UND's students from Minnesota, UND could be one of several schools hit hard by this proposal. The students Pawlenty's proposal is targeting are the exact students UND wants to enroll. With existing reciprocity agreements and UND program quality superior to secondary Minnesota schools like UMD, MSU-M, and SCSU, UND has greatly benefitted from Minnesota students. If this proposal goes through, which seems likely, UND needs some type to response.

The major winners if this bill passes would be Minnesota four year schools, other than UMTC. Those hurt the most would be UND, NDSU, and private Minnesota schools. The impact on NDSU might even be more severe, especially with its larger number of engineering students.

[Supertrex]

Ummm...so what will tuition be for the other two or three years? The money has to come from somewhere. Or will the U of M run on a Mayville State budget???

[ScottM]

I'd have to echo the previous comments, as to where Pawlenty, who will no way in hell raise taxes, will find the money for such a program. If Pawlenty is interested in keeping Minnesota's edge in education, he'd probably be better off dropping the money into primary and secondary education.

[govikes27]

When in doubt, tax smokers. Or raise their "fees" as Pawlenty calls them.

Again, taxes won't be raised on his watch, and it's too big a chuck of change to cut from other budgets. If he was really concerned about education costs, he'd try to do something about the double-digit tuition hikes.

[dagies]

I think there's going to be an income limit attached to this plan, but I don't know the specifics. That may or may not have any affect on the listed concern.

[biff]

Well, I guess this is better than giving money to drugged up deadbeats that Minnesota's welfare system supports so well. Where's the money coming from? Is an election year near?

[star2city]

Ummm...so what will tuition be for the other two or three years? The money has to come from somewhere.

It would cost the state $112 million in its first two years and would kick in for the 2007 fall semester. The governor didn't identify a funding source but said it should be easy to find the money in a budget that now exceeds $30 billion every two years.

[star2city]

I think there's going to be an income limit attached to this plan, but I don't know the specifics. That may or may not have any affect on the listed concern.

Most students would qualify:

The plan comes with family income limits, reserving the aid for children from households earning $150,000 or less. Pawlenty said 93 percent of households would qualify.

With the increasing diversity and strengths of UND's and NDSU's academic programs that attract large numbers of Minnesota residents, had often wondered if there would be some type of backlash from Minnesota government. Every state is concerned about out-leakage of its college students. NDSU ranks number one in the number of Minnesota residents enrolled outside Minnesota and UND is either 2nd or 3rd. UND and NDSU are practically second-tier universities in Minnesota behind UMTC, while UMD, SCSU etc are third-tier. If Minnesota can keep these students in state for two years at schools like MSU-Moorhead, UM-Crookston, Bemidji, or St. Cloud, they are much less likely to transfer later. If this legislation goes through, UND and NDSU could both conceivably see enrollment losses of 2000 each in four years.

[ND Pride]

I spoke with a well connected advisor to the Pawlenty administration, who is not in favor of the tuition proposal, this past weekend and was told that there is no chance that the tuition proposal will go through. For what that is worth - we will see.

[NanoBison]

Not to say that this proposal would pass in the Minn. Legislature, but I would certainly hate to see what it would do to both our campuses ( NDSU and UND ) considering how large of a share of Minnesota students we seem to attract. I couldn't imagine what would happen if 35% of UND's and 40% of NDSU's student bodies just disappeared. The NDUS as a whole would not be in a very good situation. I hope it doesn't make it past the legislative floor. Nothing against Minnesota for trying to keep students in state, but I've heard many against the proposal.