Tuition relief on horizon
Tax incentives, waivers and easier access to in-state tuition rates are among this year's efforts to alleviate the tuition increases that have gone up an average of nearly 10 percent annually over the past five years.
In addition, higher education leaders are hoping to put a cap on the amount of those tuition dollars funding faculty compensation.
"State funding has essentially been flat, and the cost of tuition has gone up. We have increased our salaries and kept our faculty really on the backs of students," said Sen. Greg Bell, R-Fruit Heights. "Tuition has borne the biggest brunt of the increase in higher education."
Bell is sponsoring a bill this session to give families of students a higher education tax credit if their children attend a state university or college. The credit, which could be claimed for each dependent student at an eligible school, would only be for residents who make less than $30,000 a year and would max out at $300 per student.
Bell said he's pushing the bill, SB62, after deliberating on how to give a little help to low-income families who are supporting a child through college.
The tax credit could benefit roughly 30,000 students in the state at a cost of about $8.4 million a year, Bell said.
Rep. Jack Draxler, R-North Logan, is also taking aim at tuition this session with legislation to ease the requirements to qualify for in-state tuition. Draxler's bill, HB118, is separate from legislation addressing whether undocumented students should pay resident or nonresident rates.
The measure would eliminate a requirement that students take 60 credit hours of courses at a Utah school or live in the state for three years before they can pay the in-state rate.
That could mean big savings for some students with the out-of-state rate nearly three times as much at most state schools. At Utah State University, residents pay $3,949 for two semesters, while out-of-staters pay $11,449.
The Logan school would likely be one of the largest benefactors of the bill because it has lost out-of-state students in recent years from Idaho and Wyoming. The out of state rates are just too high, Draxler said.
"Bottom line, of course, we want to educate people, and I think this is going to help us do that," he said.
Draxler's bill would also allow children or grandchildren of alumni from Utah schools to pay the in-state rate.
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