Walker’s tuition cut of little help

In many ways, paying taxes is like holding a funeral for your money. Before you say goodbye to it, you wistfully reflect on all the great times you had together. Remember when you and your money won that giant stuffed pony at the state fair? Or that walk on the beach with your debit card held closely in your wallet?

But then, in an instant, all those memories are gone. You must bid farewell to your money, releasing it to an unseen omnipotent force that tradition tells us knows what’s best for us. (There’s a reason the dollar bill features both “God” and “United States Treasury.”)

There are, however, areas of the government where citizens can send their cash and not feel like they’re burying it six feet underground. One of these places is to the state’s university system, a four-year degree offers tangible economic benefits.

In Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed biennial budget, he proposes making the process of paying tuition bills a little less painful, cutting in-state tuition by 5% in the second year of the biennium. This would be on top of five straight years of freezing in-state tuition, which has led to big savings for parents and students.

Yet while the 5% tuition cut makes for a good sound bite, it’s a lost opportunity to help the students who really need tuition relief. Even at current tuition levels, the University of Wisconsin System is a great value — and there’s no shortage of people willing to pay up, given that annual tuition and fees combined ($10,488) are only seventh-highest among Big Ten schools.

The problem with the cut is that it provides a benefit to wealthy students and parents who already have the means to pay tuition. Walker proposwhere

es backfilling the state universities’ tuition loss with $35 million in state funds; but those funds would be much better used as financial aid to alleviate the tuition strain on low-income families who struggle to send their kids to a state campus.

According to UW, 70% of system students take out loans to help finance their education, meaning only 30% of students graduate debt-free. Allocating more for needsbased financial aid would help the poorest students graduate with less debt, helping them become more self-sufficient when they enter the workforce.

Walker does allocate more to financial aid, which essentially has been held flat for seven years. His budget proposes sending $5.69 million more to the Wisconsin Grants financial aid program, but that’s far short of the aid he could provide by scuttling his tuition cut.

If the state were putting together a list of its financial problems, tuition being too high wouldn’t be among them. People who cry about excessive tuition are missing the point; for one, tuition isn’t like other taxes, in that it’s the ultimate user fee. If you don’t want to pay it, there are other options available.

But ultimately, tuition is an investment in yourself. And it’s up to you to make that investment pay off. According to the Pew Research Center, college graduates between the ages of 25 and 32 earn more than $17,500 per year more than non-graduates — making it worth buying stock in yourself. Sure, it would be nicer if college were cheaper, but over the long term, paying tuition now is a lot less expensive than not paying it at all.

That’s not to say the UW System always spends money frugally or wisely. In his budget, Walker allows students to opt out of paying campus fees, which often go to pay for ridiculous programs such as the “Sex Out Loud“program that provides “graphic workshops on how to give and receive sexual pleasure.” (One suspects college students figured this out many years ago for free.)

Yet Walker’s tuition cut seems to be getting a cool reaction in the Legislature for the same reasons that plagued Bernie Sanders’ obnoxious “free college” program: Why should taxpayers be on the hook for sending Donald Trump’s children to college?

The UW is still a candidate for structural reform, but writing a check to the UW is still a good bet. It’s not saying “goodbye” to your money, it’s merely saying “see you soon.”