Walker: We Might Freeze Or Cap UW Tuition

Governor Scott Walker says he’s considering freezingU-W tuition, or putting a cap on the size of any tuition hikes in the U-W system.

Walker spoke this morning at a taxpayer-supported Catholic voucher school in Milwaukee. A high school student asked the governor about being able to afford going to college.

Walker cautioned that he’s still looking at what to put in his state budget proposal for the next two years, but he says he’s considering some sort of freeze or cap on tuition increases in the University of Wisconsin system.

“Here’s where the problem is, not just coming in, but afford tuition as it increases while there,” he said.”How do you take care of that?”

Walker says he still wants the UW to grow and offer the programs and courses they want to offer.He says additional state aid for the system is a possibility.

“State aid or other ways to offset whatever they don’t gain in new tuition,” he says. “Still working out with the UW.”

For the first time this fall, tuition at some UW schools is topping five-thousand dollars a semester. The UW has long complained that tuition hikes are needed because state aid has not kept up with the cost of running the university system.