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Tuition Increases at Iowa Regents Schools Still Undecided, 5:04 News

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The board that oversees Iowa’s public universities won’t consider new tuition rates at its meeting this week because lawmakers are still working out their differences on state funding. Iowa Senate Republicans are proposing less money for the regents than Republicans in the House and governor’s office.

Senate Republicans have advanced a plan to give 12-million additional dollars to the University of Iowa, Iowa State, and the University of Northern Iowa next year. The university presidents have said they need 18-million dollars to keep tuition increases lower. 

Senator Tim Kraayenbrink, (CRY-in-brink), a Republican from Fort Dodge, says it’s a sustainable budget.

0416kraayenbrink1: 06  “We’ve been where we had to de-appropriate and I don’t think anyone wants money promised to them and then taken back.”

Democrat Herman Quirmbach says Republicans voted for a bigger tuition increase, and the amount doesn’t make up for mid-year budget cuts in recent years.

A spokesman for the regents says they’ll call a special meeting to consider tuition increases in late April or early May.

In other education news today . . . Iowans can get a tax credit for donating to a private school’s scholarship fund for low-income students. However, A bill that’s cleared initial review in the state Senate would raise the current $13 million statewide cap on those tax credits by four million dollars.

Critics say the plan amounts to a 31 percent increase in funding for private school tuition, while Iowa public schools are getting just a two percent increase in per-pupil state spending.

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