The cost of college remains on the minds of students, parents, campus administration and legislators alike as the UW System considers what it could face in Wisconsin’s next biennial budget, which Gov. Scott Walker will announce early spring semester.
Wisconsin students graduating last spring left school with an average of $30,650 in cumulative debt, according to the UW System. And as the cost of being a student has risen—with factors like housing, food, textbooks and expensive school supplies all playing a part—system leaders have increasingly asked for state support to keep college affordable and accessible.
Although Walker froze tuition for system schools four years in a row and has discussed the possibility of furthering it more, UW System President Ray Cross argued that the freeze, combined with declining state support for higher education, equals less opportunities for students looking to finish school without breaking the bank.
“When you freeze tuition, freeze financial aid and cut state funding, you chip away at the money used to help ensure we can offer the classes our students need,” Cross said in a Sept. 9 statement. “When you cut classes, it takes longer to graduate. While freezing tuition may save a couple hundred dollars a year, students and families may end up paying more in the long run.”
In August, the Board of Regents approved the system’s $42.5 million budget request, a modest one in comparison with the $250 million in funding cuts the legislature dealt universities in the last budget. According to an Aug. 29 post from the Wisconsin Budget Project Blog, state support for the UW System has dropped by about a third in 15 years.
Additionally, Cross explained that the average amount of money a student eligible for the Wisconsin Grant Program, an aid package that served more than 32,000 students last year, receives has fallen from $2,161 in the 2009-’10 academic year to $1,773 in 2014-’15.
But Cross offered his thoughts on how legislators and Wisconsin residents can show their support for higher education, as well as how students and families can best prepare for what they will face at school.
Some of those efforts kick-started in June, when the Board of Regents recommended increasing state funding for financial aid by $19,152,300 in the upcoming biennium. Cross also said resources for students and parents would continue to grow, like the College Options program—which allows students to take more college courses in high school—and speaking with prospective and current students about high-demand jobs in the Wisconsin workforce.
As the 2017-’19 budget approaches and those involved in the UW System speculate about what it could hold for higher education in Wisconsin, Cross and other leaders across the system, including student governments at each campus, will likely push for more affordability measures.
“While we still have those who say we’re not asking for enough because of the unprecedented cuts made in the past six years,” Cross said, “We want to move forward and focus on solutions for our students and families.”
UPDATE September 12 4:42 p.m.: This story was updated to remove a dollar sign in front of "32,000 students."
