MADISON, WI (WSAU) UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank is questioning Governor Walker’s proposed tuition cut to the University of Wisconsin System. The proposal would reduce in-state undergraduate tuition by 5-percent in the 2018-2019 school year and replace it with $35-million-dollars in state funds.
Blank told the “Chronicle of Higher Education” last week that funding from the cut would be better spent on lower-income students rather than the entire student body. She favors increases in student aid, which is targeted based on financial need.
“If you’re going to put substantial money into the university of that sort, you really ought to focus it on the students who most need the access, as opposed to spreading it widely across all students,” she said in an on-line video that was posted last week. She also added that there isn’t widespread support in the legislature for the tuition cut, which is part of Governor Scott Walker’s two-year budget proposal. Blank added that some GOP lawmakers want to use the money that would have offset tuition cuts for other state programs.
The MetroSource news wire contributed to this report.
