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Senate Education panel advances bill to raise community college tuition cap
Summary
The Senate Education Committee voted to send House Bill 79 to the Senate floor with a "do pass" recommendation after Rep. James Petske said the bill updates a decades-old tuition cap for community colleges and restores limited annual increases.
The Senate Education Committee voted to send House Bill 79 to the Senate floor with a do-pass recommendation after Representative James Petske described the measure as a narrow change to a long-stagnant tuition cap for community colleges.
Representative James Petske, who represents District 21 in Meridian, told the committee the bill “is essentially changing one number,” and that the cap in state code has not been updated since 2008. He said all community colleges hit the cap around 2016 and that inability to raise tuition has constrained colleges’ ability to cover rising costs, including instructor pay.
The bill keeps a statutory per-year limit on how much colleges can increase tuition and sets a higher overall cap in code. Petske said the existing language permits annual increases of up to 10 percent and the new cap in the bill would be “$32.5” (as stated in committee). Based on discussions with community college officials, Petske said most schools plan smaller first-year increases — about 5 percent — and that at 5 percent annually it would take roughly 10 years to reach the cap; at the full 10 percent annual increase it would take a little over three years.
Petske told senators that community colleges rely chiefly on three revenue sources — locally voted property taxes, state general funds, and tuition — and that keeping the cap unchanged would shift more burden onto property taxpayers and state funding.
After brief questions from committee members about how the community college funding mix differs from four-year universities, the committee voted on a motion to send the bill to the Senate floor with a due-pass recommendation. The motion was moved and seconded; committee members signaled assent by voice vote and the motion carried.
The committee recorded no roll-call tally in the transcript; the motion was approved by voice vote.
What happens next: House Bill 79 will be placed on the Senate calendar for further floor consideration and any amendments or debate there.
Votes at a glance: The committee approved a motion to send House Bill 79 to the Senate floor with a due-pass recommendation by voice vote. The transcript records the motion and that it "carries," but does not record a roll-call tally.
