[Vision2020] SJR 101 passes Idaho House

Donovan Arnold donovanjarnold2005 at yahoo.com
Wed Apr 8 16:22:21 PDT 2009 

Bear,
 
You are incorrect that the UI cannot charge tuition. It can and does. It just cannot charge tuition on resident students because the taxpayers already pay for that tuition. This bill will only allows for double charging of local and state residents. They are taxed for the UI, and are now charged again in tuition. Is it fair that Idaho resident pay for tuition and the students pay their tuition too? I don't think so. 
 
The student fees, versus being charged tuition is also a badly needed protection for the students, because it limits student fee increases to just 10%. If UI is allowed to charge whatever it wants from year to year in tution, it may prevent students from being able to finish their degrees. At a 10% annual cap, they can better predict and plan for total costs of their education of the four to six years it takes to complete the degree. With no cap, many waste money and time on an unfinishable goal. 
 
Second, it also forces the UI to spend the fee increases under the students control and student related programs. Tution hikes, instead of student fee hikes, takes the legal control of the money out of the hands of the students, and entirely under the control of the UI Adminstration. A serious blow to students controling their own destinies and having a bargining chip with the UI administration, pretty much their only control.  
 
UI has, until recently, taken 15% of the state budget. So I think it has been adequently funded to accomplish its intended purpose. The UI will never have enough money to do all that it wants to do. 
 
I disagree that UI should not have four unversitities. Each university has a different focus and mission, and serves a different constituency. UI is a land grant and research univeristy. Which makes it different, and it needs to be where it is. LCSC is a job training focused school. BSU is where 60% of the population is located and is badly needed to keep the strong economy in the Treasure Valley which supports UI. Idaho State University is needed because BSU, UI, and LCSC are simply too far away. They should have access to an education system they support.
 
I do agree that the four universities could do a better job in combining resources, and should not replicate services. We do not need a UI in Boise, or BSU in CDA. One state university per area is fine. 
 
Best Regards,
 
Donovan
 


--- On Wed, 4/8/09, bear at moscow.com <bear at moscow.com> wrote:


From: bear at moscow.com <bear at moscow.com>
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] SJR 101 passes Idaho House
To: "Donovan Arnold" <donovanjarnold2005 at yahoo.com>, vision2020 at moscow.com, "JLBrown" <jlbrown at turbonet.com>
Date: Wednesday, April 8, 2009, 3:13 PM


Donovan,

While I am opposed to this particular amendment to the state constitution, my opposition
is not 
to tuition!  The University of Idaho, since it's inception has not been allowed to charge
tuition 
because of the state constitution, and for as long as I can remember has never gotten
enough 
funding from the legislature for one reason or another. When the University had to resort
to 
charging "Fees", which is allowed, it was a game of smoke and mirrors, and what this
particular 
legislation does is finally call a spade a spade, and brings much needed funds into the 
University primarily for wages.

Now, what we SERIOUSLY need to look into is can a state, the size of Idaho afford four 4
year 
colleges/universities? We have a million and a half people in the state. We are ranked
44th in 
population, can we afford to sustain four University systems? Yes, I know the geography
and 
population distribution easily lends itself to having four, but can we afford it?  Lets be
honest, 
is there any reason on God's green earth why two of the four 4 year schools are 30 miles 
apart? What would cost less, a means of getting students up here from Lewiston or
maintaining 
LCSC for a year?


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> I wish somebody would oppose this bill. The idea of raping Idaho students
f> rom what little money they have left to get a college education is
wro> ng. 
>  
> Out of state and out of country students are already charged tuition. This
> bill only allows the UI to charge local and state resident students
tuition> .. It will allow UI to rack up the debt even further on our own local
s> tudents making UI only affordable to people outside of Idaho, not the
taxpa> yers that support the UI. We will subsidizing the education of more out of
> state students at the expense of our local ones. 
>  
> It is going to take me over 20 years to pay off my student loans because I
> work and live in Idaho. If I had to pay an addition $2000 a year in
tuition>  at UI, I would have in no way been able to afford to go. 
>  
> This is a worthless bill, unless you want to hurt the right of local
studen> ts to get a quality education. 
>  
> I believe that the original poster is incorrect in their assumption that
mo> ney will appear in the hands of Idahoans simply because UI has
th> e ability to charge them more. 
>  
> Best Regards,
>  
> Donovan 
> 
> --- On Wed, 4/8/09, JLBrown <jlbrown at turbonet.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> From: JLBrown <jlbrown at turbonet.com>
> Subject: [Vision2020] SJR 101 passes Idaho House
> To: vision2020 at moscow.com
> Date: Wednesday, April 8, 2009, 11:15 AM
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Visionaries,
>  
> Minutes ago the Idaho House overwhelmingly passed SJR 101, allowing the
Uni> versity of Idaho to formally charge tuition (instead of having to
euphemist> ically call them fees).
>  
> Rep. Shirley Ringo spoke eloquently on behalf of the University of Idaho
an> d the need to level the playing field between the U of I and the
stateâ> €™s other institutions of higher education.
>  
> Even Rep. Grant Burgoyne, a freshman Democrat from Boise and U of I alum
wh> o opposed the measure, spoke at length in support of the U of I and of the
> contribution of higher education to the state’s economic
developmen> t.
>  
> Not a peep from Rep. Tom Trail in support of the institution that is the
ec> onomic lifeblood of our community.
>  
> Judy Brown
> -----Inline Attachment Follows-----
> 
> 
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