Letters to the Editor | July 9th, 2015
To the editor:
With a $2 billion surplus, we had a great opportunity this year to make college more affordable for Minnesota students – and for good reason. Many families and students struggle with the cost of a quality higher education, and Minnesota ranks fourth in the nation in student debt.
Unfortunately, students at the Minnesota State University in Moorhead recently learned that they will receive a tuition hike next year. Raising tuition is essentially a tax increase, because you’re taking money out of the pockets of students, many who simply can’t afford it. Now, thanks to these misplaced priorities, the cost of tuition and room and board at Moorhead will be nearly $16,000 next year.
Why, with a $2 billion surplus, is tuition going up? The answer is simple – House Republicans would rather put those dollars toward corporate and business tax breaks. In fact, they insisted on keeping nearly $1 billion of the surplus on our state’s bottom-line for a potential “tax giveaway” in 2016, when an extra $85 million would have frozen tuition for every Minnesota student for the next two years.
Making college affordable should be a higher priority for the Minnesota Legislature, as it was over the past two years. In 2013, Governor Dayton and the DFL-led Legislature froze tuition for all Minnesota students for two years, despite a $627 million deficit. With a $2 billion surplus, it’s simply unacceptable that Republicans chose to raise tuition on students.
Minnesotans shouldn’t have to take on decades of debt to get a college degree that will help them succeed. It’s the wrong way to grow a stronger economic future in Minnesota, and we can do much better. We believe those are higher priorities than corporate tax breaks that will largely benefit the metro-area businesses.
Sincerely,
Paul Thissen,
House DFL Leader
April 18th 2024
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