Speaker Robin Vos (WRN file photo)
A proposal from Governor Scott Walker to cap future University of Wisconsin tuition increases at the rate of inflation is winning support from one key lawmaker.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) said Tuesday that he’s open to the proposal, which was included in a letter the governor sent to the Joint Finance Committee on Monday. Vos said having a cap in place would take the “stress out of worrying about an eight, nine, ten percent tuition increase for parents across the state.”
Walker’s budget does call for continuing a freeze on undergraduate tuition for another two years.
The Board of Regents last week did vote to increase tuition for some graduate students and out of state undergraduate students on several UW campuses. Vos said he supports that plan, as long as the UW remains competitive with other institutions.
The Rochester Republican remains skeptical though of a plan to give the UW System more autonomy. He voiced concerns that regents will not use that authority to make the system run more efficiently. “I have been frustrated by the regents’ lack of enthusiasm for using many of the authority’s ideas to save money,” he said.