Amid another proposed tuition increase for UW System students, some Wisconsin legislators are attempting to ease the burden of paying for college by establishing a tuition gift certificate program.
\It's like a gift card for anything else,"" said Rep. Mark Gottlieb, R-Port Washington.
Gottlieb, along with Rep. Rob Kreibich, R-Eau Claire, introduced the bill to create the program in the state Assembly in late January. The bill, which currently is awaiting action in the Committee on Colleges and Universities, authorizes the UW System Board of Regents to run the gift-certificate program.
Margaret Lewis, assistant vice president of university relations at UW-Madison, said the program would benefit students' families or friends who wish to offset the ever-increasing cost of education.
""[Family and friends] like to contribute to students' education ... but they want to make sure their contributions are actually being used for education as opposed to something else that the student might choose to spend it on,"" Lewis said. ""This would assure the giver of the funds that [their money] would actually go to pay tuition.""
The bill states the gift certificates could also be used to pay for students who study abroad, but it does not specify how much money the donor could make any particular gift certificate. Lewis said that would be left up to the regents to determine.
According to Lewis, the bill was not introduced at the request of the UW Board of Regents, and it has not yet come out in support of the bill. However, she added, ""in general, they are always interested in ideas to help students pay for college.""
But Rep. Spencer Black, D-Madison, whose Assembly district includes the UW-Madison campus, does not support creating such a program for the system. Black said this bill just creates an extra bureaucratic hurdle.
""I don't think this is going to help the average student,"" Black said. ""If someone wants to help you with tuition they could just write you out a check and save the processing fee.""
Black said he thinks UW System students would benefit more from another bill being debated by legislators.
""The representatives who are proposing this bill need to stop holding up the minimum-wage increase, because many students who are working to try to pay for college would benefit,"" he said.
