COLLEGE TUTITION COSTS RAISE EYEBROWS - Uniform Grading Problem Surfaces

(05/20/2002)
From The Charleston Gazette

Education chairman also concerned over grade uniformity for Promise scholarships
Monday May 20, 2002

By Phil Kabler
STAFF WRITER

If West Virginia colleges and universities can't control ever-rising tuition rates, the Legislature may step in and do it for them, the House of Delegates education chairman warned Sunday.

Upset with tuition increases of up to 13 percent approved this spring, Delegate Jerry Mezzatesta, D-Hampshire, threatened to require legislative approval for any future hikes.

"We need to go back in and say, what are we doing to our citizens?" said Mezzatesta, who likened tuition increases at state institutions to tax increases.

J. Michael Mullen, chancellor for the state Higher Education Policy Commission, said after Sunday's meeting of the Legislative Oversight Commission on Education Accountability that there are a number of reasons for the tuition increases.

He said the schools had to offset part of a 3 percent funding cut imposed statewide by Gov. Bob Wise, had a 12 percent increase in employer's contributions for health insurance, and received insurance premium increases from the state Board of Risk and Insurance Management.

"Unlike a standard state agency, on our campuses, 40 percent of the operating budgets are from nonstate funds," Mullen said.

He said tuition on state campuses went up less than the 18 percent average increase nationally.

Also Sunday, Mezzatesta discussed possible legislation to get the bugs out of the new Promise scholarship program.

He said a major problem in Promise's first year is the lack of a uniform grading system statewide. Some counties, for example, weight grades for advanced classes while others don't.

"A kid who takes tough classes could get a C, but in the adjacent county, that would be a B," Mezzatesta said. Promise scholarships require a minimum 3.0 grade point average.

Mezzatesta said the program should also adopt a sliding scale, so that students with less than a 3.0 average but exceptional scores on the ACT or SAT could also qualify.

Promise Executive Director Robert Morgenstern agreed that the different grading scales have been a headache, but said the issue should be addressed by the state Board of Education or by local school boards, not the Promise board.

"The lack of a uniform grading system across the state, along with weighted grades, is probably the most difficult problem we've dealt with," he told the committee.

Promise scholarships have been awarded to 3,861 students, while another 1,923 applicants were rejected. The most common reason for ineligibility was failure to make the minimum required score on the ACT or SAT test, which wiped out 1,246 applicants.

Mullen said 1,142 students qualified for both the Promise scholarship and the need-based state Higher Education Grant Program.

For the 2002-03 school year, the state awarded 11,130 need-based grants for a total of $22.3 million. In 1992, the numbers were 5,040 grants for $5.8 million.

Lottery profits pay for the $10 million cost of Promise scholarships and $18 million of the needs-based grants.