ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, January 14, 1996 TAG: 9601150049
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: PHIL WALZER LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
Gov. George Allen's budget plan would increase grants to Virginians who go to private colleges in the state by more than 30 percent. But it would not add a single dollar to the amount of financial aid offered to students at state-supported universities.
The state's Tuition Assistance Grants are the equivalent of vouchers for higher education. The grants, which now total $1,500 per student per year, are distributed to 13,000 students at private colleges in the state. The grants, known as TAGs, are awarded to Virginians regardless of financial need or grade-point average.
Allen's proposed budget would increase the award to $1,700 this fall and $2,000 in the fall of 1997. That would raise the annual appropriation for the grants from the current $19 million to $21 million in 1996-97 and $26 million in 1997-98, said J. Michael Mullen, deputy director of the State Council of Higher Education.
The state's allocation for financial aid for students at state-supported colleges would hold steady at about $63 million a year, Mullen said.
``At first blush, it doesn't look fair,'' said Beverly Sgro, the state's secretary of education. ``But ... I think it makes very good fiscal sense.''
State officials project up to 60,000 more students in state colleges within the next decade. The higher TAG grants, Sgro said, could help encourage some to attend private colleges, which officials say can take up to 7,000 more students.
``It's much more efficient to have this influx of students being accommodated in private schools rather than the state having to use considerably more dollars to fund increased enrollment'' in public colleges, Sgro said. ``When you look at that economically, the state benefits greatly.''
She also noted that the amount of the TAG awards had not risen since 1989.
Aid for students at public schools will not go up, she said, because the budget restricts tuition increases to the rate of inflation. ``The [current] level of financial aid should be sufficient to provide money for students who do need aid,'' Sgro said.
But Leonard W. Sandridge Jr., executive vice president of the University of Virginia, said that with any tuition increase, ``the need of our students will increase. ... It means that students will have to incur more debt or take on more jobs or otherwise cut their own spending habits.''
Observers don't expect any challenges to the increases for the TAG program, which enjoys bipartisan support.
Til Hazel, the Northern Virginia businessman who has spearheaded a statewide campaign to boost funding for higher education, has been critical of most of Allen's 1996-98 proposal for colleges. But he, too, supports the increase in TAGs as ``an efficient and effective way to maintain educational opportunity in the state.''
Yet he faults Allen for not also increasing aid for students at the public colleges. ``Sure, there is an inconsistency,'' Hazel said. ``Yes, I'd like to see it all increased. We're not satisfied with the Allen budget. It does nothing to reduce the real cost to our students of tuition.''
Virginia pumped more money into financial aid in the late '80s and early '90s to help offset big tuition increases. But officials say students at state-supported colleges still came out behind.
In the late '80s, the state was able to meet 50 percent of those students' financial-aid needs, officials of the State Council of Higher Education say. Now, that figure is at 35 percent. ``As we talked to students,'' said Gordon K. Davies, director of the council, ``we were told, `It's getting harder and harder for us.' Access was being hampered.''
Late last year, the state council recommended slightly lower increases for the TAGs, but an additional $31 million in aid for students at state-supported colleges over the next two years.
Mullen, the deputy director of the higher education agency, said most states have similar programs to help residents attending private colleges.
Virginia's TAG program began in the early 1970s. Liberty University, the Christian school in Lynchburg founded by the Rev. Jerry Falwell, has the most recipients - 985.
Mullen said the grants have helped forge a spirit of cooperation between public and private colleges unusual in most states. The private college leaders, for instance, have helped support bond referendums for college construction, though they weren't the beneficiaries, he said.
In an analysis of Allen's budget, which provides a $475 million increase for colleges, Hazel wrote that it was the first time in a decade that a governor had not increased money for financial aid.
If the TAG increase is approved, it will eclipse the average $1,778 grant the state now awards to students at public colleges, according to state council figures.
But private college presidents say the comparison doesn't take into account the $3,400 per student that Virginia gives to state-supported institutions to educate students.
Sgro also noted that while the TAG grant has stayed the same, the gap between the average tuition and fees at the state's private and public colleges has risen from $4,465 in 1988 to $7,400 this year.
``You have to look at what it really costs a student to attend a private school. That TAG grant pales in comparison'' to total tuition, she said.
``The priority we have elected to pursue is to hold cost down for all the students. ... It's just not possible to meet the needs of every group that wishes additional funding.''
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