ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, February 15, 1996 TAG: 9602150048
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAMIE HENDRY
GOV. GEORGE Allen's 1996 budget proposal, currently being considered by the General Assembly, increases the funding for Virginia's Tuition Assistance Grant program. But while the grants are helping the commonwealth meet the growing demand for higher education, the state still needs to make some important changes in the program to make all forms of higher education affordable for low- and middle-income families.
The State Council of Higher Education in Virginia provides TAG funding to the state's private, nonprofit colleges and universities in direct proportion to the number of full-time students enrolled who are Virginia residents. This public subsidy gives students more incentive to attend one of the commonwealth's 28 eligible, independent colleges.
Since the TAG program was established in 1972, 200,000 Virginians who attended in-state private, nonprofit colleges and universities have received benefits. In 1994, the nearly $19 million appropriation was split equally among about 13,000 students, amounting to just under $1,500 each.
While the public sector dominates higher education in Virginia, the state makes a wider array of options and diversity of educational experience available by encouraging students to consider attending private schools. And by increasing the number of schools students can choose to attend, the state feels less pressure to spend money expanding its own system.
John D. Padgett, a member of the State Council of Higher Education, says TAG is "a great way for the commonwealth to provide access [to colleges] without spending millions in bricks and mortar that may not be needed in 15 years."
Indirectly, TAG may also help reduce the costs to administer public education, which have skyrocketed recently. According to the Virginia Department of Planning and Budget, the operating costs of Virginia's four-year public colleges increased by a whopping 98 percent between 1985 and 1994, while enrollments grew only 14 percent. Perhaps providing support to students attending private institutions will create a competitive atmosphere that will benefit both public and private institutions by encouraging fiscal responsibility and efficiency.
However, the indiscriminate provision of TAG grants to rich and poor alike does not seem to fit the program's mission of encouraging more students to attend private institutions. The 1996 edition of "Peterson's College Guide" lists tuition and fees for Virginia's private colleges in 1994-95 at up to $14,600 per year, with an average of $10,450 per year. Adding room and board expenses brings the average total cost of private education to $15,809 a year. The $1,500 TAG funding still leaves families with a $14,309 bill.
While students from wealthy families would attend private colleges even without the grant, most middle- and low-income families find this tuition staggering, if not financially impossible.
As one State Council of Higher Education representative said, "We've got an awful lot of students in private schools from very wealthy families. This [tuition grant money] doesn't make a difference whether they go there. But we're putting it out."
In addition, with rising public-college enrollment and rising tuition at both private and public institutions in recent years, why has the amount of the TAG awarded to each student not risen also? Could it be in part because we are diluting limited TAG funds by distributing them to wealthy families?
Instead, in order to put tax dollars where they are most needed - in the hands of talented students from less wealthy families - Virginia needs to award TAG funds on a sliding scale proportionate to family income. After all, with state support to Virginia's four-year public colleges declining and competition for state resources intensifying, a TAG program geared to providing benefits to lower- and middle-income families undoubtedly will be easier to shield from the budgetary ax.
Alternatively, why not at least place some sort of income cap on TAG eligibility to enable more funds to be available for the middle- and lower-income students who so desperately need it? Even setting the cap at $100,000, $150,000 or $200,000 would be an improvement over the current program, which represents a public subsidy regardless of need.
Virginia's most noted educator, Thomas Jefferson, once said: "There is a debt of service due from every man to his country, proportioned to the bounties which nature and fortune have measured to him." The TAG program is certainly one area where we should align ourselves more closely with Jefferson's philosophy. Let's make all types of higher education more accessible to all our citizens, regardless of personal income or choice of school.
Jamie Hendry lectures on management and is a part-time instructor at National Business College.
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