KTUL reports:

The Oklahoma A-and-M Board of Regents today approved a nearly ten percent increase in tuition and fees for students starting this fall.

University officials say the increase is needed because of rising costs, competitive pressures and fewer dollars allocated by the Legislature.

The cost for in-state students will rise from just under five-thousand dollars a year in tuition and fees to nearly 55-hundred dollars a year.

Out-of-state students who paid just over 13-thousand-500-dollars last year will have to pay nearly 15-thousand-dollars a year in tuition and fees this fall.

As I have pointed out many times before, it is time for the Oklahoma legislature to take tuition-setting control back from the Regents. The foxes are guarding the henhouse, and it needs to stop.

And “fewer dollars allocated by the Legislature” just means the University wants to spend more than they have.

According to the Oklahoma Lottery page, 45% of the $122 Million raised for education by the lottery was allocated for higher education. That’s approximately $55 Million that is split between higher ed institutions. Imagine how much tuition would go up if they didn’t have the lottery dough.

I implore someone in the legislature to push a bill through taking this power back from the Regents. If you remember, it made it through the special session last year, but Gov. Henry vetoed it because he said it did not fit the purpose for which he called the special session. With the Regents approving increases of almost the allowable maximum every year, it has becoem dereliction of duty for the state lawmakers not to take back the power they delegated several years ago.

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