GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – UW System president Tommy Thompson is looking for millions of more dollars from the state budget.
He held a budget hearing in Green Bay Wednesday to make his case. State lawmakers from the Committee on Universities and Technical Colleges listened in.
For over eight years, resident undergraduate students at UW-System campuses have not had to pay more for tuition. Then-Governor Scott Walker froze tuition in 2013.
“Every other university in the country is raising tuition, except Wisconsin, so it’s thousands of dollars in tuition that every student saves,” Thompson said.
While Thompson is for keeping the price tag the same for students’ education, he tells FOX 11 it means the university will need more help from the state.
“The tuition was frozen eight years ago, and it has not been increased, and the amount of support we get from the state has gone down.”
Thompson says, 17% of the cost to run the system – a $6 billion operation – comes from the state. Other sources, like tuition, account for the remaining 83%.
Thompson says more needs to be given to the university.
“Yes, the state support has gone down but, there’s no question about it, if you have a degree from a UW institution, your lifetime earnings are far more than they are if you just have a high school degree,” Senator Roger Roth, R-Appleton, said. “People have to ought to be able to pay into that.”
The UW System is requesting a $95.7 million increase. It would go toward expanding opportunities for online education and other programs.
Governor Evers is proposing even more than that – $190 million in the 2021-2023 budget.
Roth tells FOX 11 says the budget talks are just beginning to ramp up.
“At the end of the day, how the numbers all work out, I don’t know what that’s going to look like; There was a lot of talk about the federal money coming in. Bottom line, we want to be supportive of the university system here in Wisconsin. We recognize how important it is to our communities.”
The state budget is slated to be finalized by July 1.
Four hearings are scheduled in April, so state lawmakers can review the Governor’s proposal.
