ST. PAUL -- A months-long impasse hasn't broken the hopes of state higher education leaders that a new tuition reciprocity deal with Wisconsin can be reached by the end of February.
"I am hopeful we'll be able to reach some kind of a compromise," Susan Heegaard, director of the Minnesota Office of Higher Education, told legislators on Wednesday.
She remains in negotiations with the Wisconsin Higher Educational Aids Board, while Minnesota leaders grapple with possible solutions to a system that sees Wisconsin students attending the University of Minnesota paying up to $2,700 a year less than Minnesotans.
"I'm just trying to have two kids sitting next to each other paying the same amount," said Rep. Tom Huntley, DFL-Duluth, who is sponsoring a House bill aimed at correcting the situation.
But Heegaard bristled at some portions of Huntley's bill heard Wednesday in a House higher education committee.
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One committee member expressed concern that a legislative tract could be seen as too aggressive.
"Seems to me, it kind of blows up everything, potentially," said Rep. Bud Nornes, R-Fergus Falls.
Huntley's bill calls on the Legislature to ensure the tuition gap shrinks by requiring Wisconsin students attending college in Minnesota to pay at least as much as Minnesotan students do. The new tuition rate would begin to be phased in during the 2007-08 term.
Higher education officials said they would like the issue resolved by the end of the month to inform incoming students of any potential changes made to the tuition agreement.
Some questions remained as to whether a change in the reciprocity agreement is within the Legislature's jurisdiction. It is, said Rep. Tom Rukavina, though he questioned how the situation is being handled.
"I know we have the authority to do something," the Virginia DFLer said. "I'm just wondering why it's taking the Office of Higher Education rather than the university."
A University of Minnesota official said the institution is keeping its options open. That includes the possibility of scrapping the reciprocity deal and replacing it with its own, Peter Zetterberg said.
"We do believe that that is an alternative we have," he said.
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As to whether the bill may be more about posturing than enforcing, Rukavina said he has his suspicions.
"Perhaps this bill is trying to be used as some kind of catalyst," he said.
The reason resident tuition at the Twin Cities campus is more than $1,500 more a year than at Wisconsin's Madison campus is due to several factors, Zetterberg said. Support for Wisconsin colleges through property taxes there means about $600 million in annual funding, he said.
Another funding boost Zetterberg pointed to comes from the approximately 2,500 Illinois students paying out-of-state tuition rates -- $20,000 a year for undergraduates - in Wisconsin since those two states don't share a reciprocity agreement.
Comparatively, Zetterberg noted, Minnesota is surrounded by states with which it shares reciprocity agreements.
Rukavina said the bill may be included in a larger higher education funding proposal.
Mike Longaecker works for Forum Communications Co., which owns the Bemidji Pioneer.
