I ran across a news item yesterday that said Austin Community College trustees voted against raising student tuition for the tenth year in a row. Accordingly, student tuition will remain at $67 per credit hour for the 2023-2024 academic year. In addition, they voted to lower the tuition rate for out-of-district students to make it easier for them to attend classes. They can do this, in part, because of the size of the Austin Community College budget.
This year, it is $467M. I always find it instructive to look at community college budget documents. For example, ACC has budgeted $33.4M for maintenance this fiscal year. That’s slightly more than 7% of the overall budget. (For reference, if WCC spent 7% of its budget on maintenance, the maintenance budget would be about $8.3M.)
WCC’s maintenance budget is an aberration among community colleges. I have yet to find a community college the size of WCC that spends just $300,000 on maintenance. I have written about that before. $300,000 is not just unrealistic for a campus the size of WCC; it’s actually dangerous. Remediating the Sewer Follies last fall chewed through the established maintenance budget. (I’m also still looking for a community college the size of WCC that has 12 Vice Presidents. Haven’t found one yet.)
The tuition rate got me thinking, however. What would WCC’s tuition rate be if the Trustees had not recklessly saddled WCC’s General Fund with the responsibility of guaranteeing the loan payments on the Health and Fitness Center? (ACC’s debt service is $77M right now, which is two-thirds as much as WCC’s entire budget.) They don’t saddle the students with tuition increases to pay off the college’s debts. In fact, they have a separate revenue stream to pay for debt service. (That’s the way it should be.)
Tuition rises to support community college budget
The WCC administration hoards operational dollars to pay for construction projects (like the Morris Lawrence rehab) that don’t qualify for state matching funds. Any sane person would have to question the wisdom of taking money that the taxpayers authorized for operations and spending it on … not operations. What could that money be doing? How many new academic programs would it fund? How many new labs or classrooms? How much new classroom equipment? What about student services? Transportation subsidies for students who can’t drive to campus? On-campus childcare? Or how about a student health service? Perhaps just not raising tuition and fees?
There was a time when WCC tuition was extremely low. Then, the Trustees started using operational dollars to guarantee debt payments instead of asking the voters for bond authorizations. Once they did that, the tuition rose rapidly. WCC introduced (and raised) new fees, which are just a General Fund money grab – regardless of what they call it.
If you have questions about WCC’s spending, you need only look at another community college budget to see the differences.
Photo Credit: 401(k) 2012, via Flickr
