Gov. McMaster proposes another tuition freeze, boost to scholarships for SC colleges

S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster wants to freeze college tuition for the 2020-2021 school year.

The plan, which would give colleges a combined $26.1 million in new funding in exchange for the freeze, is part of the governor’s budget proposal for next fiscal year.

That’s a 5% increase to base funding from last year, and is meant to cover cost inflation, according to the proposal.

Next year’s $10.2 billion state budget is the largest in S.C. history and includes $1.8 billion in new money, according to a previous article from The State.

If the tuition freeze passes, it would the first time tuition rates stayed the same, something that hasn’t happened since 1985-1986, according to S.C. Commission on Higher Education data.

“I think it will help,” said Rusty Monhollon, the commission’s president and executive director. “The reason tuition increased, in part, is because state funding has not kept pace as it had in previous years.”

Between 2009 and 2018, average tuition at four-year colleges in S.C. increased 33.4 percent. In the same period, average tuition at two-year colleges in S.C. increased 36 percent, according to commission data.

A similar version of this tradeoff — increased state funding for a tuition for a tuition freeze — was part of the current year’s state budget. McMaster had originally proposed a total tuition freeze in exchange for increased funding, but state legislators amended that, allowing schools to increase tuition by only the amount needed to cover state-mandated pension and health care cost increases, according to a previous article from The State.

“The governor’s proposal is the same as it was last year,” McMaster spokesman Brian Symmes said.

While last year’s tuition freeze kept tuition down, it was not designed to prevent other cost increases such as meal plans, books, room and board, etc.

For example, Clemson University’s in-state students who live and eat on campus saw the total cost of attending college increase by at least $389 ($150 of that was for tuition) for the current school year. The year before that, the total cost of attendance increased by at least $585 ($258 of that was for tuition), according to a previous article from The State.

Last year’s tuition “freeze” did not apply to technical colleges, but McMaster’s proposal would freeze tuition at technical colleges, said Tim Hardee, the president of the S.C. Technical College System.

This year’s proposed “hard freeze” would allow no tuition increases — even for health care and pension costs — but would not affect housing and meal plans, which cannot receive state dollars under state law, according to a previous article from the State.

The prospect of keeping tuition down is a boon to South Carolina’s largest school, the University of South Carolina. The school’s president, former U.S. Military Academy at West Point Superintendent Robert Caslen, had promised to not raise tuition next year.

“While we’re still analyzing the specifics of the governor’s budget proposal, it does provide significant funding for tuition mitigation and we fully intend to freeze tuition at current levels system-wide,” Caslen said in a statement through a spokesman.

The governor’s proposed budget also includes millions of dollars in additional spending for higher education. Here are a few highlights.

Increase in need-based aid

The request would triple the amount of lottery scholarship money to low income students — increasing it to $54.2 million, according to a fact sheet from the governor’s office.

The increased need-based funding would not detract from any funding for other lottery scholarships, such as the LIFE, HOPE or Palmetto Fellows scholarships, Monhollon said.

The proposed increase in need-based funding came as audits and media reports shed light on how the state spends disproportionately more on merit-based scholarships than needs-based scholarships compared to other states.

Need-based aid helps increase the number of low-income and minority students who attend college and makes them more likely to earn a degree, according to a study from the nonprofit Center of Budget and Policy Priorities.

“We have a lot of great scholarships, but we don’t put enough into need-based aid,” Monhollon said.

Capital repairs

The proposed budget would spend all $162 million in last year’s Capital Reserve Fund on repairing buildings and other infrastructure at the state’s colleges and universities.

The funding amount is based on the number of in-state students each institution has, McMaster’s spokesman Symmes said.

By spending the money now on repairs, it will reduce the need for colleges to borrow and pay interest on a loan long-term, according to the proposal.

High-demand jobs

One key point in the proposed budget is $18 million to buy equipment for “high-demand job skills training” for the state’s technical colleges.

Some of those high-demand jobs include information technology and health care, Hardee said.

“A lot of our programs are training for high-tech jobs in the state and it’s important for our technology to match” what industries are using, Hardee said.