Letter to the Editor: Assemblywoman Wagner Supports Bill to Cap Tuition at 4 Percent

Middle class families and students continue to face rising tuition and fees at our state universities and colleges.  With tuition, room and board hovering close to $22,000 per year, students and their families are making difficult decisions to finance their education. 

Many students are working part time, many parents have made personal financial sacrifices and, unfortunately, many students will find themselves in debt upon graduation. 

Obtaining a college education should require hard work, but the costs cannot continue to escalate at an out of control rate. That’s why I’m sponsoring legislation (A-3781) to again cap tuition increases at no more than 4 percent.

The Governor’s Task Force on Higher Education recently recommended that tuition caps be lifted, with tuition hikes left to the discretion of  each school. But this is not the time to lift the caps.  Our students and families are hurting. 

One of the members of the task force was President Richard McCormick of Rutgers University, who is earning $550,000.  Upon his retirement, he will return to Rutgers as a professor earning $335,000. 

I recognize that his contract was negotiated in 2002, but I find it difficult to comprehend - and quite offensive - that this panel is recommending doing away with tuition caps and yet one of its members is to be rewarded with a lucrative contract. 

This type of spending is exactly why we need a tuition cap. 

- Assemblywoman Connie Wagner, District 38