Higher education leaders plan to recruit out-of-state students by offering lower tuition to help “subsidize” in-state students and public universities to better compete with peer schools, Manship School News Service reports.
House Bill 989, which passed the Senate Education Committee Wednesday without objection, would allow higher education boards to lower tuition and fees for out-of-state students in an “economics of scale” effort to boost enrollment. It now moves to the full Senate for debate.
Current law requires tuition and fees for nonresidents to be at least equal to the average of other southern schools.
The bill’s sponsor, Rob Shadoin, R-Ruston, said that situation has made some Louisiana universities noncompetitive with neighboring states. Louisiana Tech University’s out-of-state tuition is $6,000 higher than the peer average, he said. Other schools, like Nicholls State University, Southeastern Louisiana University, University of Louisiana at Lafayette and University of New Orleans also charge thousands more than the peer averages.
“If we recruit more out-of-state students than we have now, just the quantity will make up for that (loss),” Shadoin told the committee. “We’re losing to other southern states.”
Sen. Conrad Appel, R-Metairie, as well as representatives from the UL and LSU systems repeatedly underscored that the new law would not squeeze Louisiana students out of the state’s colleges and universities.
LSU’s executive director of policy and external affairs, Jason Droddy, said LSU could target a large market of families that moved from Louisiana to Texas. “Our strategy is east Texas,” Droddy said. “The kids are familiar with Louisiana, and the kids want to come back.”
