By Andy Brack
Contributing Writer

A quiet but growing debate at the Statehouse is over whether South Carolina should cap tuition increases at the state’s public colleges and universities.

Proponents like Gov. Mark Sanford say caps are needed to keep the cost of college affordable for South Carolina students.

Opponents say caps are no better than price controls that meddle in the marketplace.

Rising rates

Today’s tuition rates are about twice what they were five years ago at most state public colleges and universities.

For the first two of those years (2001-02 and 2002-03), the state tied tuition hikes to the national Higher Education Price Index, which allowed an increase up to a certain national average plus a few more dollars. In 2002-03, for example, tuition increases were permitted to the HEPI level plus $250.

But since then, there have been no caps.

Even with the semi-cap and then with no cap, tuition rates have increased dramatically.

At Clemson, tuition was $5,090 in 2001. The next year with a semi-cap, it rose to $5,834 annually, followed by no-cap raises in the following years to $6,934 (03-04), $7,840 (04-05) and $8,816 (05-06).

At the University of South Carolina, the rise was similar but not as dramatic, with tuition set at $4,260 in 2001-02. That figure rose by more than $3,000 to $7,314 in five years.

At teaching colleges, two-year regional colleges and technical colleges, the stories were the same—increases of 66% to 145% over the five-year span.

Falling support

But tuition makes up only about 20% of colleges’ and universities’ income. Yet as tuition has been rising, state support of public colleges and universities has dropped dramatically.

Clemson, for example, got $103.6 million in state support in 1999-2000, compared to $85 million in 2004-05; USC suffered a similar 17% drop in state funding.

So what does all of this mean?

It means that as the state took away money with one hand, colleges and universities raised tuition with the other to keep the quality of education they provided about the same.

It also suggests the state needs to take a serious look at how it funds higher education.

Instead of artificially capping tuition, it might be better to more fully fund base-level support to keep tuition rises in check.

Just look at how South Carolina differs from North Carolina, a state with a great tradition of big financial support on the front end to higher education.

According to a recent story in the Rock Hill Herald, the overall cost to educate a student at Winthrop University in Rock Hill is about the same as it is at the nearby University of North Carolina at Charlotte, $12,000 a year.

At Winthrop, tuition is about $8,700, while the state provides about $3,500 in support per student. Across the state line, however, the figures are almost reversed; state support at UNC-C is $8,500 annually, while tuition is $3,500.

In other words, consistent front-end support of higher education and a state political commitment to higher education has allowed North Carolina to keep tuition very affordable.

In North Carolina, higher education is a priority. In South Carolina, it’s much lower on the totem pole.

Unsound politics

During the next few weeks, state lawmakers will look at whether to implement some kind of cap during the budget process.

Stand-alone legislation on caps appears doomed, according to various sources.

So perhaps legislators really ought to focus on the longer term and ways to provide more front-end support to colleges and universities so they aren’t forced to jack up tuition to maintain quality.

Andy Brack is the publisher of the S.C. Statehouse Report (www.statehousereport.com), a forecast of business developments in the South Carolina Legislature and state government. E-mail him at brack@statehousereport.com.

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