Representative introduces RS31925 to raise community college tuition cap from $2,500 to $3,250

BOISE — Representative Lance Clow introduced RS31925 to raise the maximum statutory cap on community college tuition and fees from $2,500 to $3,250, telling the House Committee on Education that community colleges have for years been at or near the existing cap.

“For the record, I'm Lance Clow, representative district 25 and I'm presenting to you today RS31925. It's a very simple RS…basically what it's doing is increasing the cap on tuition and fees that can be charged by community colleges,” Clow said. He described technical drafting changes on page two of the proposal that were the work of legislative services staff.

Clow said the change would increase the cap by $750 and that the current law allows institutions to raise tuition by up to 10% annually; community colleges that the sponsor consulted do not expect immediate increases above 5%. "If the community colleges were to increase their tuition by 5% in the next year, the grand total of all those increases statewide would be 1,500,000," Clow said, and he told the committee there would be no fiscal impact on the state general fund.

Representative Nelson moved to introduce RS31925; the committee voted to introduce the measure. Nelson said his experience on a community college board made him sympathetic to institutions’ need for additional revenue in the face of inflation.

The draft RS was introduced to the committee for further consideration; no final appropriation or specific institutional tuition decisions were made during the meeting.