Continued Tuition and Spending Increases are Unacceptable

For Immediate Release – March 25th, 2008

Contact: Dustin Gawrylow, (701) 223-9887

Continued Tuition and Spending Increases are Unacceptable

AFP-ND Reacts to Higher Education Budget Proposal

BISMARCK, N.D – Yesterday, a subcommittee of the North Dakota Board of Higher Education approved a 53% general fund spending increase that would still allow tuition for students to increase by 4% each year.

“We have seen the cost of higher education for the student more than double in the last 10 years. The taxpayers’ contribution has also increased nearly 50%. These increases were in an era of low inflation,” said state policy director Dustin Gawrylow. “The national economy is slowing down, inflation that has previously been contained to energy costs is now showing up elsewhere, and the Board of Higher Education now looks to drastically increase the cost to the taxpayers without addressing the problem of increasing tuition and student debt.”

College Graduates in North Dakota as of 2006 were ranked as having the 3rd highest debt upon graduation according to The Project on Student Debt.

“We need to look for ways to reduce the cost of college education for students, reduce the amount of debt those students carry after graduation, and reduce the cost to those graduates who are either paying taxes themselves already, or will be in the near future. We need to send the message to graduates that we want them to stay and work in North Dakota, and that we as a state are doing everything possible to allow them the ability to afford to stay. By increasing the cost to taxpayers and students alike, we continue to price North Dakota out of the market as an option for young people to stay and afford to pay back their debt,” concluded Gawrylow.

 

 

 

Americans for Prosperity (AFP) is the nation’s premier grassroots organization committed to advancing every individual’s right to economic freedom and opportunity. AFP believes reducing the size and scope of government is the best safeguard to ensuring individual productivity and prosperity for all Americans. AFP educates and engages citizens in support of restraining state and federal government growth, and returning government to its constitutional limits. For more information, visit www.americansforprosperity.org.

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