Wisconsin Technical Colleges Balk At Targeted Tuition Freezes

Technical colleges across Wisconsin are rallying against a tuition freeze for certain degree programs laid out in Gov. Scott Walker’s budget.

Wisconsin Indianhead Technical College President John Will said this is the first tuition freeze tech colleges have ever faced. But it’s not system-wide. The freeze would only apply to specific, high-demand fields within each college district. Will said this would create confusion for students and their families.

“What it will cause for our system is differential tuition,” he said. “So, we’ll have the same students paying different tuition in the same programs.”

Also, Will said those high demand fields would be picked by the Department of Workforce Development, not the technical colleges themselves.

“So, we see some problems I guess, potentially, with having another agency involved in the process,” he said.

Walker’s tech college tuition freeze still needs to be approved by the Legislature.