Witnesses rap suggestions for tuition price controls

Witnesses at a U.S. House subcommittee hearing on college costs warned that suggestions for federal tuition price controls would be unworkable and damaging to higher education.

Valerie F. Lewis, president of the State Higher Education Executive Officers, urged members of the Subcommittee on 21st Century Competitiveness to "use incentives, not regulation, to drive improvement in accountability and moderate cost."

F. King Alexander, president of Murray State University in Kentucky, warned that limiting tuition increases to increases in consumer prices "would be disproportionately harmful to all state colleges and universities that have worked diligently to keep their tuition rates and 'sticker prices' low." Alexander suggested the federal government instead should disseminate information to students, parents and taxpayers about net college costs and use that information as the basis for allocating federal subsidies.

Jamie Merisotis, president of the Institute for Higher Education Policy, advised the subcommittee that while tackling rising college costs is important, no "one-size-fits-all" solution will work. "I believe that a federal foray into controlling the prices charged by institutions would be unwise and potentially destabilizing," Merisotis said. Instead Merisotis suggested increases in need-based financial aid and improvements in the financial planning and budget practices of postsecondary institutions.

Jessica Hanson, a Florida State University student, told the panel that rising college costs are forcing students to work more and incur additional debt. "We must hold our university administrations accountable and ensure that they do not engage in wasteful spending; we must ensure that it is no longer an option to balance their budgets on the backs of students," Hanson said.

Subcommittee Chairman Howard "Buck" McKeon, R-Calif., is expected to introduce legislation that would establish a college-affordability index as a standard measure of increases in tuition and fees. McKeon told the hearing that the legislation "is not about price controls."