Republicans move to end UW tuition freeze, reject Evers' budget plans
Republicans on the Joint Finance Committee (JFC) ended a freeze on tuition increases while also largely rejecting Gov. Tony Evers’ proposal to inject a massive investment of state funds into the University of Wisconsin System. Sen. Mary Felzkowski (R-Irma) tried to justify this, saying that if in 1981 she was able to work multiple jobs to pay her way through UW-River Falls and pay off her student loan debt, current students can too.
In 1977, in-state tuition at River Falls was $544. This year, in-state tuition was more than $8,000. (The closest year to Felzkowki’s time at college in which tuition data was available was 1977.)
The JFC voted 11-4 along party lines to reject Evers’ plans to spend millions more dollars on the state’s colleges and universities. Instead, Republicans are ending the tuition freeze with no caps on increases or guidelines for the UW System on setting tuition. They approved spending $5 million to create a nurse educator loan program and $2.5 million on the state freshwater collaborative.
Republicans also nixed an Evers proposal to expand a program at UW-Madison that helps low income students pay tuition.
Read more: https://wisconsinexaminer.com/2021/05/27/republicans-move-to-end-uw-tuition-freeze-reject-evers-budget-plans/