SHARE

Extending a tuition freeze on the University of Wisconsin System no doubt will be popular with students and their families, and making a college education more affordable is certainly a policy goal that should be pursued by state legislators and university officials alike.

But Gov. Scott Walker's proposal for another two-year tuition freeze on the system smacks of political opportunism — the freeze comes during an election year — and raises serious questions about what kind of a university system the state wants to maintain. Given the anemic support the state provides for the system, a one-year freeze strikes us as a more reasonable option.

Wisconsin students deserve affordability, but they also deserve a quality education — the kind of education the system has provided throughout its history. And a quality system requires quality faculty, staff and research facilities. Which, in turn, means paying competitive salaries and providing adequate funding for those facilities.

Where does that money come from? The system's budget is about $6 billion; state support is about $1 billion. Tuition and other sources make up the difference. Last August, the new chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison announced a fundraising campaign to help meet her school's needs. What about regional campuses such as UW-Milwaukee or campuses in La Crosse or Eau Claire?

In explaining his proposal on Friday, Walker tied the freeze to estimates that the system will have $1 billion in cash reserves come June.

The Legislature imposed a two-year freeze last year and reduced expected state aid after those reserves came to light, a revelation that put the university in a bad light. As we noted last year, university officials should have been more forthcoming about those reserves, which understandably drew a strong political reaction from some legislators.

But reserves are not necessarily a bad thing; in business operations, which some legislators say government should emulate, they are in fact considered a good thing.

And there's the fact that much of the so-called reserves was in fact money set aside for projects approved by the Legislature. This was especially true in the case of UWM. In fiscal 2013, 75% of those funds had been obligated for specific, planned purposes or were categorized as reserves to give campuses a buffer from unexpected expenses and revenue losses, such as a drop in enrollment, the Journal Sentinel reported.

UW System President Ray Cross said that in the current fiscal year, 80% of the $1.256 billion is committed on some level.

Cross told the Journal Sentinel that he would not have been surprised by a proposal for a one-year freeze but wasn't prepared for the two-year proposal. Cross said he contacted Walker's staff about a month and a half ago and said that based on December's cash balances, he might be open to extending the current tuition freeze to the 2015-'16 school year.

That strikes us as the more prudent option, unless the state is willing to come up with additional funding for the university to maintain affordability and quality for students. What the universities need is greater flexibility from state control — not more, mindless, politicized control. As we asked earlier: What sort of university system does the state want? Let your governor and legislators know.