Ritter aims to cap college tuition hikes

DENVER - Gov. Bill Ritter wants tuition increases at public colleges in Colorado capped at under 10 percent next year, slowing a half-decade’s worth of double-digit increases.

Ritter asked the Joint Budget Committee to limit tuition hikes to 5 percent for community colleges, 7 percent for four-year colleges and 9 percent for research universities such as the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. In addition, he asked that all schools keep tuition increases for need-eligible students at 5 percent or less.

Under the proposal, UCCS students would pay an average of $453 more per semester next year, and PPCC students would see a maximum tuition hike of $92.60.

Tuition has been rising quickly since Colorado colleges had public funding reduced during the recession of 2003. Katie Gleeson, student body president at Colorado State University, said she has seen her tuition go up by more than 50 percent in four years.

Capping tuition increases is an attempt to achieve balance between keeping college affordable and increasing the amount of money going to Colorado colleges, which get some of the lowest per-capita funding in the country, Department of Higher Education Director David Skaggs said. Eventually, the state must ask the public for an increase in college funding, he said.

“Our institutions have done a heroic job of doing more with less,” Skaggs said Monday. “We now have to take to the people of this state the proposition that they can do more with more.”

Several representatives from the Associated Students of Colorado, which rallied at the Capitol Monday, said this is a good first step.

Gleeson characterized the plan as “not ideal” but said she understands the need for compromise.