Tuition Freeze Pluses And Minuses

State Assembly Minority Leader Gordon Hintz sees some pros and cons to the continued tuition freeze for UW System colleges. He says, “I mean on the one hand you want to try to keep tuition down. It has certainly gone up all over the country over the last 25 years. But you don’t want to do it at the expense of quality. The fact is there has been over $800 million in cuts to the UW System during Governor Walker’s time.” Hintz feels another major drawback of the freeze in tuition is the loss of experienced and knowledgeable faculty. He says, “The frozen tuition while keeping the costs down has eroded the quality of our institutions. We’ve had an exodus of faculty who are getting more competitive offers that are choosing to leave places like the UW-Oshkosh and around the state. You got low moral, you got fewer classes offered and you’ve gotten higher membership in class sizes.” Hintz feels if tuition is being kept down the state should make up those funds to the UW System so it doesn’t amount to a cut and it doesn’t erode the quality of our institutions.