GRAND RAPIDS – Michigan cannot repair itself from its new ranking as a poor state without more students attending and graduating college, the president of Grand Valley State University told the Senate Appropriations Higher Education Subcommittee on Friday, but it cannot do that if the state continues to impose a tax on students and their families to attend school.
Thomas Haas said in prepared comments for the subcommittee that the failure to adequately fund Michigan’s universities amounts to a tax on students who have to pay the higher tuition needed to meet university expenses.
And he blasted officials who complain about tuition costs when they are unwilling to provide more funding to universities.
“It is intellectually disingenuous when policy-makers cut appropriations and then complain when tuition goes up. That is, unless what they have in mind is reducing the number of public university seats for Michigan citizens, since the dollars don’t follow the students,” Haas said.
He made the comments at the first hearing the Senate subcommittee held on the proposed 2010-11 budget, in which Gov. Jennifer Granholm proposed no cuts, but no increases, to the higher education budget. A year ago she proposed a 3 percent cut to the four-year schools.
Haas said literally thousands of students have been turned away from his university for financial reasons.
And he said the Legislature has a moral as well as a constitutional duty to support higher education.
The hearing was held at Saginaw Valley State University.
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