Representative Clow introduces bill to raise community college tuition cap by $750

Representative Lance Clow introduced RS31925 to the House Committee on Education, proposing an increase in the statutory cap on community college tuition and fees from $2,500 to $3,250.

Clow said the change would allow an additional $750 under the cap and noted community colleges have largely been at the prior cap since about 2016. "The change is to change the cap from $2,500 to $3,250 — it's a $750 increase," Clow said. He told the committee the current law permits a 10% increase per year but that community colleges indicated they likely would not increase tuition by that full amount and expected under 5% in any first increase. "A lot of it depends on other factors, the revenues that come in to cover expenses," he said.

Clow said Legislative Services Office staff made ‘‘technical’’ wording updates to align bill language with drafting preferences. He told members there would be no fiscal impact on the state general fund from the statutory cap change. "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," he said.

Representative Nelson moved to introduce RS31925; the committee approved the motion by voice vote and the measure was introduced for further consideration. The committee did not take a recorded roll-call on this item.

No formal amendments, funding allocations, or implementation dates were specified during the presentation. Clow said colleges rely on a mix of tuition, property taxes and some state funding, with career-technical funding among the state contributions.