College tuition, state funding hold steady for 2010

Missouri's four-year public universities won't see cuts to their state funding for fiscal 2010, in exchange for their promise to hold tuition rates steady for the 2009-10 school year.

Gov. Jay Nixon Wednesday announced a budget agreement reached unanimously with the state's 13 public schools, including Missouri State University. The institutions will receive the same amount of state funding as they did in fiscal 2009, and the schools will not raise tuition or academic fees for the upcoming academic year, if lawmakers approve the deal.

"While students in many other states are likely to face double-digit tuition increases next year, Missouri students can rest assured that their tuition rates will stay the same," Nixon said in a news release. "It will take more of these innovative, collaborative agreements to get our economy moving in the right direction."

National budget experts are predicting tuition increases of between 8 percent and 10 percent across the country because of the troubled economy, according to the release. In the last decade, tuition at Missouri's public universities has grown an average of 7.5 percent per year.

MSU, meanwhile, has raised tuition an average of 6.9 percent every year since 1999, according to figures from the governor's office.

In December, MSU reported that the Coordinating Board for Higher Education had asked universities to prepare impact statements to address possible reductions of 15 percent, 20 percent and 25 percent to fiscal 2010 state appropriations. MSU responded by initiating a hiring freeze, eliminating some positions and laying out additional drastic measures that would be required if the reductions became reality.

Wednesday, MSU President Michael Nietzel wholeheartedly supported Nixon's agreement and lifted the school's hiring freeze, though he said the school would continue to look for cost savings in the fiscal 2010 budget.

"The plan the governor has proposed today is a very good one," Nietzel said on an MSU blog. "It will enable the universities to continue their progress in educating the talent and strengthening the human capital Missouri must have to be successful in these times, and it will allow us to help make higher education more affordable for all individuals."