Michigan Campus Diag

Students walk through the Diag on the University of Michigan campus.

(Melanie Maxwell | The Ann Arbor News)

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder has a son who just finished graduate school at the University of Michigan a few weeks ago, and a daughter who will graduate from high school next week and start her undergraduate career at the same university in the fall.

During a recent address to a group of senior citizens at The Manor at Glacier Hills in Ann Arbor, Snyder explained several initiatives that the state is undertaking in order to help offset the cost of school for people who attend Michigan colleges and universities.

"Tuition has gone up a lot and there are two or three things that we need to do. One is: we need to keep working with the universities on managing their cost structures. We need to look at more need-based financial aid. But (we also) need to be more innovative," Snyder said.

"One opportunity that's really made a huge difference – and we're not using it nearly as much as we can – is dual enrollment."

Dual enrollment allows high school students to take college classes while also completing their high school curriculum. Students can earn college credits for free while complete high school.

It's something Snyder himself did. He started community college at 16 years old en route to earning his bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan months before turning 19.

"Think about this: if you can get a year of college done while you're still in high school, you've saved 25 percent on your bachelor's degree and you've saved 50 percent on your associate's degree," he said.

"In many ways we're encouraging people to go early and that is possible. That's actually how I got going to the University of Michigan early.... I had to do it separately, but now you can get credit in both places and that's one of the great savings opportunities we have to manage tuition costs."

The state has also implemented programs involving skilled trades. Snyder said that the state needs more skilled trades workers in order to keep up with growing industries.

"We're starting to find apprenticeships coming back... We have a program where you start working for this company, they pay you while you work, you alternate going to school, after three years you come out with your associate's degree, they've paid for your school so you have no education debt at all," he said.

"You have a guaranteed job and you have a work commitment for two years. That's a pretty cool arrangement that didn't cost you any money to go to school, you've got your degree, you've got a great job that's probably paying $50,000 to $80,000 a year."

Ken Nisbet, the vice president of Tech Transfer at the U-M, said that the university has a shared commitment to reducing tuition costs at the school.

In late 2013, U-M announced its "Victors for Michigan" campaign – an effort to raise $4 billion. It was the largest campaign ever launched by the university, and President Mary Sue Coleman pledged that $1 billion of that effort would be dedicated toward student support.

"They're taking $1 billion of that and putting it toward tuition relief for students. I think the colleges also realize that they have to contain costs, but they're also looking to the generous donors to also help offset the cost of tuition," Nisbet said.

Earlier this school year, Snyder proposed a tuition hike cap of 3.2 percent, which he wants public colleges in Michigan to stay within in order to receive full state funding.

Snyder asked for a 3 percent funding increase – totaling $8.9 million – for the state's 28 community colleges as part of an overall $52.1 billion state budget. Michigan's community colleges currently receive $336 million in state support.

In-state tuition at U-M is $13,142 per year -- a 1.1 percent increase from the previous year.