There's a "free tuition" proposal on the table to slow the "brain drain" from Wisconsin.
Mark O'Connell with the Wisconsin Counties Association says it's only at the talking stage but the idea is to give people free tuition at a UW school. For example, if they graduate from a four year university, they would stay in the state ten years. Five years for an associate degree, two or three years for a tech degree. If you leave before that you pay it back.
O'Connell says we are very much in a knowledge-based economy. The more young people we can keep here, working in good knowledge-based economy jobs, the more we can raise the per capita income in the state and that means more income tax revenue. That revenue, O'Connell says can be used to pay for the free tuition.
O'Connell is on a special committee studying the UW two year college system but even if the idea isn't pursued by the UW itself, O'Connell says his Counties Association may pursue it separately. He feels that strongly that a good education will help stem the flow of "brain drain" from the state.