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It costs a lot to go to college now, and next year it might cost even more at some public schools and universities in Minnesota.

To make up for budget gaps, the Board of Trustees that runs the Minnesota State system—which includes community and technical colleges and universities like St. Cloud State, Metro State, and Minnesota State University in Mankato—talked about raising tuition by 3.5% to 9% every year for the next three years. The system serves 270,000 students.

Bill Maki, vice chancellor for finance and buildings, told WCCO that the average increase will probably be in the middle. He also promised that schools would not balance their budgets by taking money away from students, so they will also cut back on resources and make them more efficient.

The board will look at each school’s tuition plan and make a final choice in June. Later in May, they will talk about their options again.

“Tuition rates are set by a number of factors. One of Minnesota State’s core values is making sure that students can afford to go there, and this is one of the main ways that the school makes money.” Maki said, “There will have to be trade-offs between giving students the experiences they want and charging them the right amount.”

State funding is the other main source of money that supports Minnesota State services. But the state budget looks bad—a $6 billion loss is expected in the future if lawmakers don’t do the right thing this session—so the Legislature is cutting back.

The House and Senate still need to work out the gaps in their budget plans for higher education, but Minnesota State is ready for no new money, which Maki said hasn’t happened in ten years. The last budget brought in extra money all at once, so he said that whatever the end deal is, it will probably mean less money.

“We look forward to being able to move forward and do it in a very thoughtful, deliberate way to try to minimise the impact the best we can to students,” he stated.

Lawmakers in both houses are working hard to improve the state’s financial aid program even though they have less money to work with. Maki said that it will help families that have to pay more for college.

With tuition rates between $6,200 and $10,000 per year, the system’s schools and universities are the cheapest in the state. According to papers from the Board of Trustees, fees had stayed the same for the past two years. In the past ten years, the biggest rise was 3.4%.

During Thursday’s debate in the Minnesota Senate on the higher education budget bill, GOP Sen. Zach Duckworth said that the current budget situation was caused by Democrats running the State Capitol for the past two years. He tried to move money from the North Star Promise Program to Minnesota State to freeze tuition costs. The North Star Promise Program gives free college to kids from families making less than $80,000 a year.

DFL Sen. Omar Fateh of Minneapolis said that the budget problems state schools are facing were caused by earlier legislatures.

“A lot of the challenges higher ed has been facing, including costs, is due to years of disinvestment that’s been occurring — year after year after year, the state not investing in our higher education, not investing in our students,” said Fateh. “That’s what we did. We put a record amount of money into higher education last two years.

The Board of Regents at the University of Minnesota decided last year to raise fees by 4.5% for this school year.

To escape a special session, the Legislature has to end on May 19.

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