Speaking on KBIA’s Intersection earlier this week, Deputy Commissioner for the Missouri Department of Higher Education Paul Wagner said that Missouri has been a national leader in keeping college tuition down. He said that tuition increases at public four year institutions in the state were the lowest in the country over the last three years. That statistic comes from a College Board Report released earlier this month. Wagner points to two factors that have helped limit tuition increases.
“We have a law that basically says that public institutions will be penalized for increasing their tuition beyond the consumer price index," Wagner says. "That, along with Gov. Nixon’s leadership in really aggressively pushing the institutions to keep their tuition increases low, has really led Missouri to be a national leader.”
The College Board report also ranked Missouri 44th in the country in terms of state funding for higher education. Wagner says this has led to a number of cost saving measures at Missouri colleges and universities, such as relying more on adjunct instructors over tenure track faculty, and postponing building maintenance.
