Students and their families are off and running now that the new school year is just around the corner. Our Minnesota State College and University System campuses started their new school years on Monday, including Central Lakes College right here in Brainerd. And with that start of the school year, a number of concerned students and parents have talked to me about the skyrocketing costs at our public colleges and universities. With so many questions and concerns out there, I’d like to take this opportunity to talk about our higher education institutions.

 Minnesota has one of the most educated work forces in the country, and while we’ve slipped in the last decade or so, it’s still one of the many ways our state is attractive to businesses. Students who attend our public colleges and universities are more likely to stay in Minnesota, work in Minnesota, and raise a family in Minnesota. The research and work being done in our public colleges and universities in clean energy, robotics, health care and dozens of other fields has the potential to create thousands of new jobs, and even entirely new industries and technologies that we haven’t even thought of yet. It’s clear that our higher education institutions are part of the economic opportunity engine of our state.

 But instead of asking millionaires to pay the same amount of taxes that middle class Minnesota families pay, the Republican majority instead decided to balance the state budget on the backs of college students and their families. That decision means that everything on campus will cost more this year — a tax that every student and their families is paying to solve the state budget deficit without even knowing it. 

For some families and students, that hidden tax is enough to put college out of reach. After all, a 5 percent tuition hike this year is piling on top of massive tuition hikes over the past 10 years. It now costs nearly twice as much to go to college than it did just a decade ago. For many, that’s simply too much.

And the Republican-Tea Party majority didn’t just decide to raise tuition. They hit MNSCU campuses with a nearly historic budget cut. This year Central Lakes College will educate more students in a more competitive 21st century economy, but will receive 20th century funding. Our colleges and universities are being asked to serve 40,000 more students with the same funding that they got in 1999.

Basically, college students are going to pay more under the Republican-Tea Party plan, but get a lot less. Because of the funding cuts handed down by the Republican legislature, colleges not only hiked tuition, but are also going to need to slash thousands of course offerings and admit fewer students. Foreign language programs could be slashed at a time when students need them to compete in a global marketplace. Entire majors could be eliminated in order to make up the funding gap.

At a time when unemployment among recent college graduates is already too high, Tea Party Republicans fought to protect 3,800 of the richest of the rich millionaires instead of protecting the 6,000 students on the Central Lakes College campus. Republicans decided that keeping corporate tax breaks in place was more important that keeping 6,000 students competitive in the 21st century global economy.

 I truly believe that with proper investments and reforms, our higher education system can be the economic opportunity engine for the next generation. It can give Minnesota the highly-educated work force that attracts new companies to Minnesota and help shape the new innovative entrepreneurs who will build the next big Minnesota company.

 I pledge to do all that I can to ensure that a college education is affordable for all who are want one and are willing to work for it.

REP. JOHN WARD, a Democrat, is the state representative for District 12A, representing Brainerd, Crosby and Nisswa.