Collins leads bill to freeze tuition

DES MOINES -- On Tuesday, Representative Taylor Collins (R-Mediapolis) led House File 2242 through the Iowa House to help address the college affordability crisis hurting Iowa students. HF 2242 freezes tuition and mandatory fees at Iowa's three regent institutions for the next five years. 
"Despite my Democratic colleagues' talking points, we appropriate over $600 million every year now to our regent universities," Collins said. "It doesn’t matter how much more we give our universities - the bureaucracy continues to grow regardless."
Collins explained that the total regent enterprise budget, excluding UIHC, is now over $5 billion - over half the size of the entire state budget.  Only about one-third of expenditures at our regent institutions actually go toward academic instruction anymore.

"I would argue that the entire purpose of these institutions is to teach students and train our workforce," Collins said. "Our students deserve predictability, and it’s time for our universities to learn to control costs."
HF 2242 passed the House with a bipartisan vote of 86-5. It now heads to the Senate for their consideration.