Tuition cap problematic

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Few students in the country have a tuition story to tell quite like those at Clemson University. Students who entered school during the 2000-2001 academic year paid $3,467 in yearly tuition. Four years later, the same education costs $6,958. Ouch.

So it's understandable why students across the state are banding together and aligning themselves with a well-intentioned proposal by Gov. Mark Sanford to cap tuition increases at the national average. Obviously, this tuition spiral must stop. But a cap is not likely to be the answer.

Sanford's proposal is a simple, direct solution to rising tuition that appears to be gaining some footing in the state Legislature. House Ways and Means Chairman Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston, says the House's budget probably will include a tuition cap.

But a cap — especially one like the governor's that would limit tuition increases to no more than about 5 percent — carries considerable risk. A cap denies schools the option to tap the one revenue source they control. That would be too constraining in an era of rapidly declining state higher education funding and rising expectations. South Carolina has cut higher education spending nearly $100 million over the past three years.

Yet this state has shrewdly pinned much of its economic future to higher education, understanding that South Carolina prospers only if it can establish world-class expertise in the sciences and can produce the well-educated work force emerging businesses demand. A cap undermines those objectives by all but guaranteeing less money to higher education to compete. Mediocrity or the status quo — which is what this state buys when it underfunds higher education — is simply unacceptable. This state's ability to compete economically is dependent upon the quality of its education, especially higher education.

A better alternative to a cap — or perhaps a companion piece to a more generous cap — is for this Legislature to give colleges the freedom they need to pursue private-sector research money. The General Assembly must pass a proposed bill that gives schools sorely needed flexibility and an exemption from outdated restrictions.

The Legislature must also stop adding more programs while blocking efforts to either consolidate programs or shutter lightly used campuses. Lawmakers continue to fund pet projects and disregard the impact they have on the system as a whole. This legislative excess is responsible for an overbuilt system of colleges and universities suffering under the weight of inefficient funding. Clearly needed in the absence of legislative self-control is governance separate from the General Assembly that has the authority to coordinate the goals of individual schools under a unified state plan for higher education. Students are paying for this inefficiency in higher tuition.

South Carolina is not alone among states that have at least considered a tuition cap. Maryland is considering a proposal that would institute a tuition cap. But one of its leading proposals would obligate the state to increase funding. That's a compromise worth exploring. Otherwise, a tuition cap here isn't a good idea.