UNI President calls on legislators to make decision on cost of education

The president of the University of Northern Iowa says legislators need to decide what percentage of their education the students at U-N-I, Iowa and Iowa State should pay. U-N-I president Robert Koob says there should be a “significant public debate” about whether the state wants public education or private education. He says public education was founded upon the idea that the public good from an educated population outweighed the costs to the taxpayer.Koob says you can make the argument the U.S. is now a world leader because of public education. Koob says the world knows there is more higher education available here than anywhere else, but as state and federal budgets became tighter, the dependence on tuition has grown. Koob, who attended U-N-I, says when he went to school, his tuition covered less than 10 percent of his education. Koob says when you adjust for inflation, the cost of a degree from U-N-I has gone down, while students are now shouldering a bigger share of that cost. Koob says his problem is there’s been no public debate about what share students should shoulder. He says there’s been a lot of finger-pointing, and now’s the time for a debate — hopefully in the Legislature — to decide the issue. He says the three state-supported universities would live with whatever lawmakers decide, it’s just time for them to make a decision. Koob made his comments on the Iowa Public Television program, “Iowa Press.”