Posted on 12/11/2006 6:37:38 AM PST by sbMKE
Free tuition for vow to stay? Panel's idea: After college, you work in state for 10 years
By SCOTT WILLIAMS swilliams@journalsentinel.com Posted: Dec. 10, 2006
Would you agree to live and work in Wisconsin for 10 years after college if the state offered to pay your tuition costs for all four years?
That is the question being contemplated by a state commission that was assigned to upgrade Wisconsin's two-year college campuses - but has hatched an idea to overhaul the entire University of Wisconsin System.
The commission is considering recommending free tuition for all students who agree to remain in the Dairy State after getting their degrees, reversing an exodus of college graduates and potentially transforming the state's economy.
The commission will gather in Madison on Tuesday to discuss including the idea in a package of recommended reforms geared primarily toward improving the two-year campuses.
"We need to put some bold ideas out there," said Mark O'Connell, the commission member who proposed what some are calling the "big bang" idea because of its revolutionary approach.
"I have yet to find a group that does not see the benefit," said O'Connell, who is executive director of the Wisconsin Counties Association.
As the theory goes, a captive work force of college graduates would attract new industry to Wisconsin, along with higher-paying jobs. Those workers, in turn, would pay more income taxes and sales taxes, providing the state with the millions of dollars needed to offer free tuition.
The state currently collects more than $800 million a year in tuition and fees from 160,000 students on UW campuses statewide.
Sen. Russ Decker (D-Schofield), who serves on the commission with O'Connell, said he favors improving higher education in Wisconsin. But he expressed concern about the potential cost of the free tuition idea.
"It's something you'd like to do," Decker said. "You also have to see if it's practical."
Dan Leistikow, a spokesman for Gov. Jim Doyle, said the governor was willing to consider the proposal, which he compared with Doyle's own program guaranteeing college admission to any high school graduate who can maintain a "B" grade-point average.
"The governor's open to all kinds of ideas," Leistikow said.
Although no estimates have been released on the cost of underwriting tuition for all students, the idea is generating enthusiasm among many members of the commission appointed to study UW's two-year colleges.
John Torinus, a West Bend business owner who is co-chairman of the commission, said he believes the 16-member panel has tentatively reached a consensus to back the idea. Torinus is also a business columnist for the Journal Sentinel.
Among the other topics under consideration are building more dormitories on two-year campuses, increasing the number of four-year degrees available and forging stronger cooperative alliances among the state's many institutions of higher education.
The commission is co-chaired by retired Janesville businessman Roger Axtell and also includes Green Bay executive Brad Hansen, former Waukesha Mayor Carol Lombardi, Madison attorney Don Schott and several representatives of higher education.
David Wilson, chancellor of the two-year UW Colleges and the UW Extension, assembled the group last summer.
On Friday, the commission conducted a statewide teleconference with students and faculty on all two-year UW campuses.
At UW-Waukesha, students voiced mixed feelings about the idea of accepting a free college education in exchange for spending the first 10 years of their careers in Wisconsin.
"It would be a tough call," said Mike Robinson, 19, a communications major who hopes for a career in broadcast journalism.
But the offer was irresistible to Ashley Waldbillig, 19, a health care major who dreams of moving to Arizona or somewhere else in the Sun Belt. Waldbillig said she would be willing to endure a few more Wisconsin winters for the chance to attend college free of charge.
"No problem - I would do it," she said.
O'Connell said he envisions the state requiring a 10-year commitment from anyone who earns a bachelor's degree here, or a five-year commitment in exchange for an associate's degree from a two-year college or tech school.
If a graduate decided to leave Wisconsin early, that person would be free to go - with a bill in the mail to reimburse the state for the free tuition. Modeled on Ireland's idea
Proponents of the concept say it's modeled on a program in Ireland that cost more than $3 billion a year, but has been credited with helping Ireland become one of the fastest-growing economic forces in Europe.
Rep. Sue Jeskewitz (R-Menomonee Falls), another commission member, described the free tuition program as "scary" because the payback in terms of economic development would not be guaranteed.
Jeskewitz said she has not decided whether to back the idea.
"It is a great concept," she said. "I don't know if the citizens of Wisconsin are ready for it."
The state already pays $990 million annually into the UW System, which spends $4.1 billion a year to operate 13 four-year universities and 13 two-year campuses.
O'Connell and Torinus said the state could fund the program by borrowing on the municipal bond market, then pay off the bonds with the increased tax revenue expected from residents in higher-paying jobs.
Torinus likened the arrangement to tax-increment financing districts, which allow local governments to borrow to build new infrastructure then repay the debt by harnessing the increased property tax growth from the resulting real estate developments.
"Why the hell can't we do that with education?" he said.
For years, Wisconsin has struggled with a "brain drain" resulting in the loss of college graduates who are drawn not only to Sun Belt communities, but other markets perceived as having better qualify of life, such as Minneapolis, Boston and Seattle.
Fearing that industry and growth are following the new graduates and bypassing Wisconsin, government and business leaders in recent years have focused on various ideas for educational reform.
Doyle's new program, known as the Wisconsin Covenant, would cost $7 million to $10 million a year to guarantee college admission to any high school graduate with good grades.
O'Connell said taking that concept one step further - making college free - could jump-start the economy so much that the state could afford to both pay off the tuition bonds and make quality-of-life improvements in Wisconsin.
"We will attract smart young people," he said. "They will stay here, and they will want their children to stay here."
You indenture them for 10 years and then tax the life out of them.
Of course, the best minds will still move on and the state will have the priviledge of trying to recoup their (our/taxpayers) investment from a pack of women's studies majors.
Indentured servitude?.....
What a cheesey idea.........
There are a lot of 'ifs' built into this idea. It's essentially money borrowed to be spent up front with no clear guarantee of income to repay.
I owed 3 years to the AF for every year they paid for graduate study. Kinda made me a retiree
Didn't another state try something like this a number of years ago? (North Dakota?)
Georgia has done this with teacher programs...it worked quite well. I have two kids who will be college age very soon. We are moving to Wisconsin...I would be thrilled!
Load up the college with more kids who don't belong there and have taxpayers foot the bill. Yeah, that'll jumpstart the local economy.
I really don't see any benefit to a program that assumes college grads will have earning power. Seems like pandering to a voting block, Dem playbook "get out the youth vote" more than a solid fiscal scheme. Why not focus on incentives for actual earners to come and stay in Wisconsin vs. students?
I'm shocked to hear that Wisconsin needs to bribe people to stay in the state. I thought it was a Liberal paradise, a place where all the progressive ideas were bearing fruit. So desirable that they'd have to build a fence to keep us conservatives out. What happened?
On the mark! It would likely attract those who wouldn't consider college as their first option due to economic/scholastic reasons. That itself would drive the cost of education up because of increased enrollment. Of course the state would then pay for these increased costs by increasing taxes (disproportionately, as well). Meanwhile, there would be these bonds waiting to be paid off with no guarantee that the program will provide the increased revenue they envision.
Seems more like a scam to me.
If colleges in general are liberal bastions, then Wisconsin colleges have to be the liberalest.
Yet, the students they indoctrinate are fleeing?
1... To get away.
2... To infect other places.
I wonder which...
They leave for jobs....quite simple.
And the jobs are elsewhere because Wisconsin's tax picture is very unattractive. I have three degrees from The University of Wisconsin at Madison - and wouldn't consider returning to Wisconsin, where I was born and where I lived for 38 years, for anything.
There will be law firms lining up to negotiate "forgiveness" or settlements of 25 cents on the dollars for students who move out of state.
I bought a house in Milwaukee just over 5 years ago. Since then my property taxes have risen 65%, with the bulk of the increases going to "education." MPS costs us (taxpayers) over $10k per student yet testing scores have only 30-40% of students achieving passing scores. And now they want to roll this "success" to the colleges.
BTW, it isn't the bad weather that makes jobs leave Wisconsin, it is the idiotic politics. Idaho has weather just as harsh and is gaining jobs.
I can't provide figures but the cost>success ratio is likely the same here in Illinois. I have relative near Burlington, WI and I grew up in Twin Lakes. Wisconsin is a beautiful state, but the libs have caused havoc there just as they have here.
BTW, the Pack looked good yesterday. I was a happy guy. Maybe things are beginning to jell.
Good points - same as unemployment benefits which require you to apply for three jobs a week -- CEO, VP and CFO applications keep the benefit checks rolling in.
Who's to say the funded college grad wouldn't be able to do the same? No jobs in Wisconsin, it's out of state for me!
"Why not focus on incentives for actual earners to come and stay in Wisconsin vs. students?"
Whoah, there. Making that kind of sense will spin explode heads in governemnt.
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