A plan to improve state funding to the University of Vermont and the Vermont State Colleges system would use hoped-for marijuana tax revenues, a new lottery tax and an income tax on those earning more than $309,000, and more, to pay for hikes in state aid to higher public education.
The plan to raise more funds in the short term, intermediate and long term to return the state’s support to the college system to pre-1980 levels was laid out in a report issued Friday during a press conference at the Vermont Statehouse.
The report, commissioned by the American Federation of Teachers Vermont, was introduced by Ben Johnson, AFT Vermont president, who said the group was “here to reclaim the promise of high quality public education in Vermont.”
The promise was the state’s long-ago high level of support to fund public higher education for Vermonters.
“Vermont has been turning its back on that promise by disinvesting in that promise for more than 30 years,” Johnson charged. “We know there is no overnight solution, and we know that some of our solutions are aggressive,” but he urged that state officials hear the group’s pleas to “starting turning the ship around (putting public higher education support back) on a responsible path.”
In the report issued Friday, the group supports lowering student and family costs and debt so that the University of Vermont and the Vermont State Colleges system are more affordable for Vermonters, and returning to the 1980 level of state funding for the student tuition support ratio for UVM and VSC.
“The crisis of affordability stratifies the population into those who can afford to obtain a college degree and those who can’t, undermining the ethos of public education as a vehicle for upward mobility,” the authors of the report wrote.
“Further, the burden of debt not only affects families in their ability to move forward, it is systematically affecting our economy’s ability to rebound from the Great Recession. With greater student debt, students have put off major decisions – such as buying a home, starting a family, opening a small business or saving for retirement – that contribute to Vermont’s economy,” the authors wrote.
More money needed – fast
The group is calling for “an immediate increase in support for public higher education and for students.”
Their second directive is “an intermediate goal of moving the cost that Vermont students and families have to pay – as a share of family income – to the New England average.”
The report proposes a series of reforms designed to provide an immediate infusion of funds into the system. State support would increase by $40 million, with $19 million replacing tuition dollars. Increases in tuition and fees would be frozen. The rest of the funds would be used to support the institutions and would represent a 3.5 percent increase in overall expenditures and 34 percent of current state appropriations for UVM and VSC.
In 2012, the amount that Vermont students paid in tuition and fees for a four-year institution was equal to 22.3 percent of the median family income in the state, according to the report. The group wants to bring tuition costs down at Vermont’s public colleges to the New England average of 18 percent of median family income over 16 years. In order to achieve that goal, 19.5 percent of the money currently spent on tuition and fees would have to come from state appropriations. The cost? Approximately $62.5 million in state funds.
In 30 years, 2045, the plan would bring the ratio back to 40 percent state funding, the report states.
Bringing the ratio to 50-50 would cost $260 million in state funds.
Paying for the increased college aid
To fund the plan, the group is proposing a tax on “break open” lottery tickets, which would raise $6.7 million annually, and a 1 percent tax increase on Vermonters whose incomes are above $309,000, which would raise an estimated $20 million.
Other funding proposals include extending the state’s system of combined reporting for corporate income taxes to cover funds in known overseas tax shelters, a step the group estimates could raise an additional $5 million.
The group also wants to get its hands on some of the possible marijuana tax, saying $12 million a year from that new revenue could go toward higher education funding.
Limiting the portability of Vermont Student Assistance Corp. grants for attendance at out-of-state and for-profit institutions is another component of the proposal, a step the group asserts could lead to $6 million in education funding from VSAC going to Vermont’s public colleges and university.
Finally, the funding proposal includes 2 percent increase in state appropriations this year “absent dedicated revenue.”
At a press conference on Friday, Rep. Barbara Rachelson, D-Burlington, announced she will be introducing a bill that puts restrictions on the out-of-state portability of VSAC grants to help keep more of those dollars in-state. Sen. Anthony Pollina, P/D-Washington, said he has a bill that would add a $2 fee to motel and hotel rooms, $1 of which will go to higher education in-state; the other $1 would go to weatherization efforts.
Lynn Castro, a junior at Castleton State College, said going to college for many Vermonters means “a debt sentence,” and she said many college students are actually homeless, in trying to afford their educations, because they cannot also afford living costs.
“For people like me who don’t have the luxury of parents going into debt, we have to choose to either be homeless or get a college education,” said Castro. “I ask you, Vermont Legislature, what do you want the legacy of our students to be?” She asked if they wanted empowered, uplifted students or a group of students coming out straddled with debt and limited opportunity.
Pollina said the conscious and deliberate decision to underfund the state colleges has “gotten to the point where we have hit rock bottom, and our economy and our families have suffered.”
The lack of state funding, he said, has created “a very big hole … it’s time for us to dig ourselves out of it.”
“There will be people who will say we simply cannot afford to do that, and there will be other people who will say we simply cannot afford to do that,” Pollina said. “College educations and more college graduates mean more income for the state of Vermont more tax revenue for the state of Vermont, and less reliance on public services for the state of Vermont.”
Scott Coriell, spokesman for Gov. Peter Shumlin, issued a statement on the AFT request for restored state funding to the public higher education system in Vermont. The governor is proposing an engineering partnership program and he has “fought to make it so Vermont kids who play their cards right can earn up to two years of free college through the early college, dual enrollment, and Vermont Strong Scholars programs.”
