By Rick Pluta, Michigan Public Radio Network
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkar/local-wkar-986420.mp3
LANSING, MI –
The chair of a legislative higher-education budget panel wants to sanction Michigan State and Wayne State universities for violating the spirit of a law meant to hold down tuition increases. The state budget director has ruled the two universities are in technical compliance with the tuition restraint rules. But state Representative Bob Genetski says MSU and Wayne State found a technicality that allowed them to skirt the rule -- and he says, for that, they should lose millions of dollars in state aid.
"Well, the entire purpose of putting the tuition restrain language into the budget was to send a message to the universities that House Republicans are committed to protecting Michigan families from tuition increases," he says.
Genetski says all the other state universities complied with the letter and the intent of the law.
An MSU spokesman says the university has already lost a quarter of its state funding since 2001--and the Legislature should not continue the pattern of disinvestment in higher education.