Budget Cuts Will Cause Tuition Hikes For Md. College Students
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Students in the university system of Maryland will have to dig deeper next year. Budget cuts are forcing a tuition hike.
Political reporter, Pat Warren, reports the state university system is tied to the state's finances.
The university system started feeling the pinch before Larry Hogan took office.
The news is out on campus.
"I don't like it," a student said.
The university system of Maryland is raising tuition five percent.
"None of us like to see this," Chancellor, William Kirwan with University system of Maryland said.
The increase comes after more than $40-million was cut at the end of the O'Malley administration. The university is trying to compensate with a hiring freeze and other cost-saving measures.
"I regret to say students have to share in that sacrifice," Kirwan said.
And the students are well aware.
"I think unfortunately the state needs to do what it's going to do, but I think for a lot of students, especially low-income students, it's going to be a really big problem," student Sarah Gregerman said.
"Especially students who are working to support themselves and whose parents aren't able to support them or pay for their tuition so it's going to be that much tougher for the,," student Max Cohen said.
The university system takes those concerns to heart.
"We are always very conscious of the impact of an increase on our lowest income students, so we always carve out money to protect them against these tuition increases," Kirwan said.
Other students feel they've been unfairly singled out.
"I haven't looked at what happened, whether they don't have enough money to fund everything or if there's some projects they didn't cut, but that's all a big politics game that gets really messy," student Alexander Oshiro said.
The simple answer is, the university system funding is tied to the state budget.
"Even after we've frozen hiring, done furloughs, raise the tuition five percent, we still have about a $70-million hole in our budget," Kirwan said.
"For students I hope this is a last resort that they took, but it still sucks," Oshiro said.
The Hogan budget includes a $15-million increase to the university system, but that doesn't fill the hole.
Maryland's university system is considered among the most affordable in the nation.
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