Higher education institutions "must stop blaming explodingtuition costs on the economy," said Congressional Republicans in areport released Thursday.
"It's not just the economy, stupid," read part of the 20-pageGOP report, "The College Cost Crisis."
The report distributed to college lobbyists late Wednesday andofficially introduced Thursday by John Boehner (R-Ohio) and HowardP. McKeon (R-Calif.) declared that the nation's higher educationsystem is in crisis as a result of skyrocketing tuitions and thatthese increases "threaten to put college out of reach for low andmiddle income students and families."
"The purpose of this report is to call attention to the problemsparents and students are facing and the need for greateraccountability and transparency in college tuition hikes," saidAlexa Marrero, press secretary for the U.S. House ofRepresentatives Education and Workforce Committee. "Research doneby the GOP reflected in their report found that the college costcrisis is not simply the result of state budget cuts in highereducation."
However, Marrero said the report is not representative of everymember of the Education and Workforce Committee.
"The report is not legislation but simply a way of understandingthe problems students and their parents have been facing in tryingto fund their college education," she said.
Although the report is not legislation, the Higher EducationAct, which governs federal financial aid and other federal sourcesfor subsidizing the cost of a post secondary degree, is up forreauthorization this year.
This means Congress will have the opportunity to either leavethe act as it is or to make changes to the way the government dolesout loans for higher education.
In Thursday's report, the GOP blamed institutions for allowing"disproportionate tuition increases" and argued that the remedylikely stands in revamping the part of the Higher Education Actthat provides for federal loans for students and parents unable toafford the cost of higher education on their own.
Although the report does "demand greater accountability for thecost increases that have long plagued college campuses across ourcountry," it does not address institutions that do not set theirown tuition, like The University of Memphis.
Tennessee Board of Regents Chancellor Charles Manning said thereport especially does not speak to Tennessee's "unique problem inthe area of tuition increases."
"The short fall is coming from the state," Manning said.
In Tennessee, it's not a case of TBR crying that the state isn'tgiving it enough money to prevent tuition increases, Manning said.Instead, it's the fact that TBR governed institutions have gottensignificantly less funding in the past five years than peerinstitutions in the Southeastern United States.
"We're not comparing ourselves to school systems in the East orWest, but neighboring states," Manning said.
The dollar revenue for these schools has increased approximately6 percent per year in the last five years, he said, while dollarrevenue for schools like The U of M has increased by 1.1 percentduring the same time period.
Manning added that TBR governed schools, which include everyhigher education institution except University of Tennesseeschools, are currently operating with 13 percent less funds thanschools in surrounding states.
"We are not spending money wildly and foolishly," Manning said."We are considerably more conscious of where our dollars go, andyet we do not get the number of dollars those institutions aregetting.
"The last thing we need is for is for students to be punished by(the federal government) limiting what they can receive by way offederal loans and grants."
