UPDATE (May 24): VSC officials say they have struck a deal with lawmakers to increase tuition 1% instead of the planned 3% bump in exchange for the $2.5 million base increase. A special board of trustees meeting is scheduled for Wednesday to approve the new rates.
[T]he Vermont State Colleges won’t be freezing tuition for state residents this fall after all.
The colleges had cut a deal with Gov. Phil Scott to roll back a planned 2.9% bump in tuition in exchange for a $3 million increase in their base funding. House lawmakers had agreed to the $3 million in their version of the state’s budget, but the Senate hadn’t. Instead, the upper chamber proposed increasing the colleges’ base by $2.5 million and giving them an additional $500,000 in one-time dollars. The current base is $28 million.
Lawmakers ultimately went with the Senate’s proposal in their final budget deal. But Jeb Spaulding, the chancellor for the VSC, says that’s not enough for colleges to keep to the tuition freeze agreement.
“We can’t use one-time money, responsibly, to pay for ongoing expenses,” he said.
Rebecca Kelley, a spokesperson for Gov. Phil Scott, responded by saying that it would “be appropriate for (the colleges) to use whatever base funding increase they receive to offset tuition” hikes.
“The Administration will be discussing this further with the Legislature and the VSC and we’re hopeful we can prevent a tuition increase for students,” she wrote in an email.
Spaulding said he understood lawmakers were expecting the VSC to use the $2.5 million increase to somewhat “mitigate” the planned bump in tuition. That’s something the system’s trustees should agree to, he said, although he was clear it wouldn’t be a full freeze.
“We will accommodate their desires, but I also think it’s important for them to understand that we have ongoing, fixed operating costs,” he said.
Vermont perennially ranks at the very bottom in the country for state funding for public higher education. And its tuition rates, incidentally, perennially rank as some of the highest.
The colleges had gone into the session asking lawmakers for significantly more than what the governor offered: a $25 million increase in base funding over five years. VSC officials argued such an infusion would have put Vermont on par with other New England states, where public colleges receive about 30% of their funding from the state. In exchange, the colleges had promised to freeze tuition for Vermonters for at least two years and beef up support services.
The VSCS includes Castleton University, the Community College of Vermont, Northern Vermont University, and Vermont Technical College.