Message from Ed Fallon

Dear Friend,

A new debate on higher education is shaping up at our state universities, and we should all be paying attention to its ramifications. It doesn’t center on funding for higher education, as many past debates have. This time, it’s about the use of those funds, and the very purpose of higher education.

Students at UI, ISU and UNI will pay a $200 “energy surcharge” during the coming school year. This is a direct result of efforts by the Iowa Legislature and the Board of Regents to direct the three schools toward a greater focus on entrepreneurship and profit generation, and away from their historic focus: allowing students to achieve their dream of a college education.

Here’s how it happened: During the 2006 legislative session, the Board of Regents requested $40 million in extra spending to cover the increasing costs of energy and other expenses. The Legislature gave them over $43 million in HF 2782, but most of it was directed towards “economic development” programs and infrastructure improvements. The universities actually received only $10.3 million in additional funding to meet the needs they had identified. The $200 surcharge will raise approximately $11 million to help cover the difference. The energy surcharge has led all three universities to take steps towards energy conservation, but that’s really not the point.

The point is that Iowa’s college students are being nickled and dimed to death. With the surcharge, the average tuition and fees for a student at one of the three universities will be $6,079. Just six years ago, it was $3,155. The fact that tuition has nearly doubled while median income in Iowa has remained stagnant over the past six years makes it difficult for many young Iowans to pursue higher education. Our universities have been largely publicly funded since the state constitution was ratified in 1846. However, 2006 marks the first time in our history when student contributions through tuition and fees are greater than the percentage of public funding.

The other point is that these increases are a direct result of the Board of Regents and the Legislature valuing entrepreneurship over education.

It is critical to the future of our state universities that the Regents do not lose sight of their primary goals: education and research. It concerns me to think that some members of the Board of Regents and the Iowa Legislature would set those ideals aside to turn a profit for private enterprise.

Education is not about the creation of cogs in the corporate wheel. Our state universities are designed to be places of higher learning, intellectual stimulation and development of an informed populace to lead Iowa forward. Replacing those goals with job training, startup investment and private entrepreneurship will deny more young people access to the dream of a college degree while creating yet another conduit for the funneling of our tax dollars into the pockets of big business.

Thanks for reading!

Ed