{"id":11348,"date":"2024-03-13T05:45:56","date_gmt":"2024-03-13T09:45:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nathansnews.com\/?p=11348"},"modified":"2024-03-13T06:23:25","modified_gmt":"2024-03-13T10:23:25","slug":"fighting-against-tuition-hikes-house-budget-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nathansnews.com\/2024\/03\/fighting-against-tuition-hikes-house-budget-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Fighting against tuition hikes &#8211; House Budget 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Fighting against tuition hikes - House Budget 2024\" width=\"1140\" height=\"641\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_QpbtRhUvqE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<p>From The State<\/p>\n<p>State colleges and universities looking to freeze tuition for in-state students won\u2019t receive as much as they hoped for under a <\/p>\n<p>House budget plan being debated this week. House budget writers only approved $57.5 million for tuition mitigation for colleges and universities as part of a $13.2 billion spending plan under debate this week. <\/p>\n<p>The state\u2019s colleges and universities, along with technical colleges collectively asked for $128 million. Last year, budget writers gave colleges and universities gave $1.1 billion in annual dollars, which included an additional $124 million for tuition mitigation. <\/p>\n<p>Tuition mitigation is used to in order to freeze tuition rates for in-state students at public colleges a universities. This is the sixth straight year budget writers have included money to freeze college tuition. The mitigation money allows schools to keep up with the cost to run their operations without raising tuition on students.<\/p>\n<p>If schools take the tuition mitigation money, they have to freeze tuition for the upcoming year. The House budget plan is more in line with what Gov. Henry McMaster proposed in his executive budget when he suggested schools receive $49.8 million, using a higher education public index, an index his office has used for several years. <\/p>\n<p>Part of the limitation comes from having less new annual dollars to allocate than in recent years.<\/p>\n<p>Lawmakers only have $662 million available, and millions is eaten up by raises for teachers, state employees, state health insurance premiums and increased Medicaid costs. Budget writers had choose among $1.7 billion in annual requests. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI hope they\u2019ll honor their commitment and not raise tuition,\u201d said state Rep. Nathan Ballentine, R-Richland, who oversees higher education spending on the Ways and Means Committee. \u201cI feel confident that they won\u2019t do that. So I\u2019m more concerned about the research universities. The funding that we gave them, if you look look at their requests versus what they got. I know there\u2019s needs and there\u2019s wants but there\u2019s a lot of needs there that we still couldn\u2019t meet.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Ballentine added during the House debate that budget writers were able to give universities what they could with the limited dollars available. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI thought this job was going to be a fun job. It\u2019s not a fun job. I say \u2018no\u2019 way more than I say \u2018yes,\u2019 \u201d Ballentine said. \u201cWe\u2019ll see how next year looks, but we\u2019re in good fiscal shape.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Much of the universities\u2019 requests were in line with the increases they received during last year\u2019s budget process. <\/p>\n<p>The money set aside for tuition mitigation was distributed based on in-state student population. <\/p>\n<p>The budget still needs to go to the Senate and be signed off by the governor.<\/p>\n<p>The University of South Carolina system collectively requested $38.8 million for tuition mitigation. House budget writers proposed $21.6 million. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re grateful that both the Governor and the House Ways and Means Committee recognize the importance of the tuition mitigation program, which has played an essential role in keeping tuition affordable for South Carolina students,\u201d said U.S.C. spokesman Jeff Stensland. \u201cUSC is now entering its sixth year without raising tuition prices for South Carolinians. This is a process; and we\u2019re optimistic that members of House and the Senate will continue to prioritize college affordability.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Clemson University requested $21.1 million for tuition mitigation in this year\u2019s budget process. House Budget writers included $10.2 million. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is just the beginning of the budget process,\u201d said Clemson Director of Communications Alex Brooks in an email to The State. \u201cWe look forward to continued collaboration with our partners in the legislature in the coming weeks.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>House budget writers did not include any money for tuition mitigation dollars for the technical colleges, but want to send more money through other avenues.<\/p>\n<p>Technical colleges would receive $95 million for SC WINS scholarships, $5 million for SC Ready through the lottery, and $30 million for training in high demand areas, under the House budget proposal. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re going back to sort of normal budget levels and with the requests, this actually ends up being a pretty tight budget year,\u201d said House Ways and Means Chairman Bruce Bannister, R-Greenville. <\/p>\n<p>However, members of the ultra conservative Freedom Caucus wanted to almost eliminate all of the money proposed for tuition mitigation. <\/p>\n<p>The Freedom Caucus proposed taking out $54 million proposed for tuition mitigation and use $50 million toward increased dollars for bridge repairs. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe big schools already get hundreds of millions in tax dollars,\u201d said state Rep. Jordan Pace, R-Berkeley. \u201cBlue collar workers shouldn\u2019t be further subsidizing liberal arts bachelors degrees when we have (more than) 500 bridges in dangerous disrepair.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The House budget does include $200 million for bridge repairs, which is the amount requested by the Department of Transportation. <\/p>\n<p>Pace said if USC\u2019s Columbia, Upstate and Beaufort campuses, along with Clemson, College of Charleston, Coastal Carolina, Francis Marion, Lander, Winthrop and the Medical University of South Carolina, did not receive tuition mitigation money this year, then 25% more bridges could be addressed. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a matter of priorities,\u201d Pace said. <\/p>\n<p>Ballentine argued the state is still behind neighboring states in providing money to public universities and years ago funding to state universities was cut. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would present that we are catching up,\u201d Ballentine said. \u201cWe are way behind in funding higher education.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From The State State colleges and universities looking to freeze tuition for in-state students won\u2019t receive as much as they hoped for under a House budget plan being debated this [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[228,229,230],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Fighting against tuition hikes - House Budget 2024 - Nathan Ballentine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nathansnews.com\/2024\/03\/fighting-against-tuition-hikes-house-budget-2024\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fighting against tuition hikes - House Budget 2024 - Nathan Ballentine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"From The State State colleges and universities looking to freeze tuition for in-state students won\u2019t receive as much as they hoped for under a House budget plan being debated this [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/nathansnews.com\/2024\/03\/fighting-against-tuition-hikes-house-budget-2024\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nathan Ballentine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-03-13T09:45:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-03-13T10:23:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Matt Moore\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nathansnews.com\/2024\/03\/fighting-against-tuition-hikes-house-budget-2024\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nathansnews.com\/2024\/03\/fighting-against-tuition-hikes-house-budget-2024\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Matt Moore\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nathansnews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/e99a13c8132aea2845c8484372619ee1\"},\"headline\":\"Fighting against tuition hikes &#8211; House Budget 2024\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-03-13T09:45:56+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-03-13T10:23:25+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nathansnews.com\/2024\/03\/fighting-against-tuition-hikes-house-budget-2024\/\"},\"wordCount\":888,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nathansnews.com\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Blog\",\"Featured\",\"Videos\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/nathansnews.com\/2024\/03\/fighting-against-tuition-hikes-house-budget-2024\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nathansnews.com\/2024\/03\/fighting-against-tuition-hikes-house-budget-2024\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nathansnews.com\/2024\/03\/fighting-against-tuition-hikes-house-budget-2024\/\",\"name\":\"Fighting against tuition hikes - House Budget 2024 - Nathan Ballentine\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nathansnews.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2024-03-13T09:45:56+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-03-13T10:23:25+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nathansnews.com\/2024\/03\/fighting-against-tuition-hikes-house-budget-2024\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/nathansnews.com\/2024\/03\/fighting-against-tuition-hikes-house-budget-2024\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nathansnews.com\/2024\/03\/fighting-against-tuition-hikes-house-budget-2024\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/nathansnews.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Fighting against tuition hikes &#8211; House Budget 2024\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nathansnews.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nathansnews.com\/\",\"name\":\"Nathan Ballentine\",\"description\":\"People, not Politics\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nathansnews.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/nathansnews.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nathansnews.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Nathan Ballentine\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nathansnews.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nathansnews.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nathansnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Ballentine-Logo-Red-Blue.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/nathansnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Ballentine-Logo-Red-Blue.svg\",\"width\":633,\"height\":332,\"caption\":\"Nathan Ballentine\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nathansnews.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nathansnews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/e99a13c8132aea2845c8484372619ee1\",\"name\":\"Matt Moore\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nathansnews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c22f3263af15756ac6cefa539ccb1236?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c22f3263af15756ac6cefa539ccb1236?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Matt Moore\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Fighting against tuition hikes - House Budget 2024 - Nathan Ballentine","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/nathansnews.com\/2024\/03\/fighting-against-tuition-hikes-house-budget-2024\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Fighting against tuition hikes - House Budget 2024 - Nathan Ballentine","og_description":"From The State State colleges and universities looking to freeze tuition for in-state students won\u2019t receive as much as they hoped for under a House budget plan being debated this [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/nathansnews.com\/2024\/03\/fighting-against-tuition-hikes-house-budget-2024\/","og_site_name":"Nathan Ballentine","article_published_time":"2024-03-13T09:45:56+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-03-13T10:23:25+00:00","author":"Matt Moore","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/nathansnews.com\/2024\/03\/fighting-against-tuition-hikes-house-budget-2024\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/nathansnews.com\/2024\/03\/fighting-against-tuition-hikes-house-budget-2024\/"},"author":{"name":"Matt Moore","@id":"https:\/\/nathansnews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/e99a13c8132aea2845c8484372619ee1"},"headline":"Fighting against tuition hikes &#8211; House Budget 2024","datePublished":"2024-03-13T09:45:56+00:00","dateModified":"2024-03-13T10:23:25+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/nathansnews.com\/2024\/03\/fighting-against-tuition-hikes-house-budget-2024\/"},"wordCount":888,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/nathansnews.com\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Blog","Featured","Videos"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/nathansnews.com\/2024\/03\/fighting-against-tuition-hikes-house-budget-2024\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/nathansnews.com\/2024\/03\/fighting-against-tuition-hikes-house-budget-2024\/","url":"https:\/\/nathansnews.com\/2024\/03\/fighting-against-tuition-hikes-house-budget-2024\/","name":"Fighting against tuition hikes - House Budget 2024 - Nathan Ballentine","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/nathansnews.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2024-03-13T09:45:56+00:00","dateModified":"2024-03-13T10:23:25+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/nathansnews.com\/2024\/03\/fighting-against-tuition-hikes-house-budget-2024\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/nathansnews.com\/2024\/03\/fighting-against-tuition-hikes-house-budget-2024\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/nathansnews.com\/2024\/03\/fighting-against-tuition-hikes-house-budget-2024\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/nathansnews.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Fighting against tuition hikes &#8211; House Budget 2024"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/nathansnews.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/nathansnews.com\/","name":"Nathan Ballentine","description":"People, not Politics","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/nathansnews.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/nathansnews.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/nathansnews.com\/#organization","name":"Nathan Ballentine","url":"https:\/\/nathansnews.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/nathansnews.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/nathansnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Ballentine-Logo-Red-Blue.svg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/nathansnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Ballentine-Logo-Red-Blue.svg","width":633,"height":332,"caption":"Nathan Ballentine"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/nathansnews.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/nathansnews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/e99a13c8132aea2845c8484372619ee1","name":"Matt Moore","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/nathansnews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c22f3263af15756ac6cefa539ccb1236?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c22f3263af15756ac6cefa539ccb1236?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Matt Moore"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nathansnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11348"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nathansnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nathansnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nathansnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nathansnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11348"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/nathansnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11348\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11353,"href":"https:\/\/nathansnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11348\/revisions\/11353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nathansnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nathansnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nathansnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}