Corrections saps funds for higher ed

1 of 4 states that spend more on prisons, Mich. forces students, parents to shoulder tuition hikes.

Charlie Cain / Detroit News Lansing Bureau

As the state spends more and more to operate Michigan's sprawling prison network, it has steadily reduced investment in its colleges and universities. The result: Michigan is one of four states that spend more on corrections than on higher education.

Since 2001, lawmakers and the governor cut about $250 million in funding to the 15 public universities, prompting hefty tuition increases for students and their parents, and raising fears that higher education is being priced beyond the reach of those of modest means. The corrections budget is more than $400 million higher than in 2001.

"Putting prisons as a priority over my education is kind of unsettling," said Pietro Truba, a 22-year-old senior at Michigan State University.

Truba, a journalism major from Grosse Pointe Farms, said he's worked as many as 70 hours a week in a kitchen at a local bar to make ends meet and he's piled up student loans that could total $25,000 by the time he graduates.

"Just put it on my tab," he said. "My tuition would be lower if state appropriations to universities were higher."

He's not alone. The 288,000 students enrolled at state-run universities have been hit hard by soaring tuition and fee costs.

Between 2002 and 2006, tuition and fees rose an average of 37 percent, according to a state audit. During that same time, appropriations to universities dipped by more than 12 percent.

"Sustained periods of this disparity increase the risk that prospective students will be priced out of opportunities to attend" a university, the audit concluded.

Michigan State University President Lou Anna K. Simon said state policymakers are taking a short-sighted approach in setting spending priorities.

"The pattern suggests we are more concerned about today than tomorrow," she said.

"Higher education -- education in general -- is an investment that pays dividends over a long period of time. ...

"Education is the key to prosperity."

Michael Boulus, executive director of the Presidents Council, State Universities of Michigan which speaks for all the universities, said national spending for higher education increased by 7.7 percent last year, compared with 1.1 percent in Michigan.

The budget cuts since 2001, he said, translate into a $2,567-per-student reduction.

Granholm is frustrated

Gov. Jennifer Granholm says Michigan needs an educated work force to turbo charge its sputtering economy. She is challenging the state to double the number of college graduates by 2014.

An estimated 26 percent of those in the 25-34 age range have a bachelor's or higher degree, placing Michigan in the lower tier among states.

Granholm has proposed a 3 percent increase for higher education in her budget for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1.

But she, too, is frustrated that higher education takes a financial back seat to corrections.

"Corrections policies are way out of whack with what Michigan needs. ... Certainly I would much rather be spending taxpayer dollars educating our citizens rather than incarcerating them," the governor said.

There's no guarantee, however, that lawmakers would direct money saved by a less expensive corrections system into higher education. Sen. Alan Cropsey, R-DeWitt, an expert on corrections policy and a law and order advocate, agrees the state must find ways to trim prison costs.

"I've got kids in college and I know what you're talking about with tuition," Cropsey said. "I also know it would be far more devastating to have one of my kids murdered, robbed or raped on a college campus.

"Public protection is No. 1."

It costs an average $15,390 to attend a public university in Michigan for one year. That's about half the $31,325 annual cost of imprisoning an inmate for a year.