Democrats push bills to fund UW tuition freeze, direct more money to tech colleges

Democratic lawmakers are championing legislation to allocate more money to University of Wisconsin System campuses and ensure any ongoing tuition freeze is funded with state dollars.

The effort, one of the bills' co-authors said Friday, presents a "positive alternative" to legislation pushed by a key Assembly Republican that would set up a contingency plan if Wisconsin’s freeze on in-state undergraduate tuition goes away, among other things.

The package of six Democratic-backed bills, from Rep. Katrina Shankland and Sen. Dave Hansen, began circulating for co-sponsors Thursday. They include measures to direct more than $60 million to the Wisconsin Technical College System, as well as the UW System to compensate campuses for lost revenue under the freeze and allocating $90 million more for student financial aid.

The legislation comes after Rep. Dave Murphy received media attention this week for his planned bills to tie UW in-state tuition to the consumer price index if the freeze ends and implement cohort pricing and put limits on what student segregated fees can be used for, among other things.

Read more: https://madison.com/ct/news/local/govt-and-politics/democrats-push-bills-to-fund-uw-tuition-freeze-direct-more/article_d1399388-87e2-5379-b335-0b974f982ade.html