Gov. Bobby Jindal announced a plan Tuesday to restructure the way higher education is funded in future years in Louisiana that includes a 10 percent increase in tuition by fall 2010.The plan, called the LA GRAD – Grant Resources and Autonomy for Diplomas – Act, combines Jindal’s priorities for higher education along with recommendations from the Postsecondary Education Review Commission, which released its final report earlier this month.
The LA GRAD Act would allow state colleges and universities to raise tuition by up to 10 percent each year until the institutions’ tuition level reaches the average of similar colleges and universities in the South.
Larry Howell, associate provost, said Louisiana has the lowest tuition in the South. Last year, tuition was increased by 5 percent at Nicholls, while the average tuition increase in the South was 8.6 percent.
“It will take us raising tuition 12.5 percent a year for eight years to get to the southern average,” Howell, said. “We can raise our tuition 10 percent and still be last.”
At Nicholls, a 10 percent tuition increase would raise the cost of attending the University by about $350 in the first year or $175 each semester, Howell said.
After tuition levels at Nicholls reach the southern average, the University would be allowed to increase tuition by up to 5 percent under the LA GRAD Act if certain conditions are met. Nicholls would have to achieve and maintain a graduation rate of 50 percent under the proposal to be given the authority to raise tuition once the southern average is met.
According to the Office of Institutional Research Web site, the University’s current graduation rate is 26.1 percent. Howell said the University’s current graduation rate is “atrocious” but does not reflect current trends at Nicholls.
“What’s being published are graduation rates of students who started here in 2002, when we were open admissions,” Howell said.
When graduation rates of students, who entered the University in 2006 after Nicholls became a selective admissions institution, are published in 2012, Howell expects the graduation rate to be above 40 percent. The current southern average for graduation rates is between 40 to 42 percent, Howell said.
In addition to improving graduation rates, colleges and universities will be required to raise admission standards and retention rates under the proposal, which would be a six-year contract between the institutions and the state, Howell said.
Giving higher education institutions permission to raise tuition would take that authority away from the state legislature, which requires the support of two-thirds of its members. Louisiana is the only state in the nation that requires two-thirds of the legislature to approve a tuition increase.
In order to implement the LA GRAD Act, the governor’s proposal would also require two-thirds support of the legislature. The next legislative session begins March 29.
The state legislature gave college management boards the authority to raise tuition by up to 5 percent each year for five years during the 2008 legislative session.
In addition to the proposal to give higher education institutions more control over tuition levels as set forth by the governor in the LA GRAD Act, the Postsecondary Education Review Commission recommended the state have only two higher education management boards – one for four-year colleges and universities and one for community and technical colleges.
State four-year colleges and universities are currently managed under three boards, which include the Louisiana State University System, University of Louisiana System and Southern University System with the Board of Regents overseeing the three management boards and the board governing the state’s community and technical colleges.
