Democrat's Amendment To Freeze College Tuition Doesn't Stick To GOP Bill

The amendment would have allowed students of Indiana state universities to maintain the same tuition rate for four years.

(Indianapolis, Ind.) - Indiana House Republicans are rejecting an effort to freeze college tuition in the state. 

State Representative Earl Harris (D-East Chicago) proposed an amendment to Senate Bill 216. He says an education needs to be more affordable for Hoosiers.

“The level of complaints about the cost of attending college is matched by the unwillingness of lawmakers to do anything about it,” Harris said. “The chief barrier to pursuing a college education is the cost of it. It is time that we start doing something to address these concerns, before our young people decide that going to college isn’t worth the expense.”

The bill would have kept a student's tuition at the rate it was when they enrolled in their freshman year. It wanted to ensure a student's tuition rate wouldn't increase while they were attending any public school in the state, even if the school increased the tuition before they graduated. 

The proposal would have affected students attending Ball State, Indiana, Indiana State, Ivy Tech, Purdue, Southern Indiana, and Vincennes universities.

Harris says the average Hoosier college student leaves with $30,000 in debt and he wanted to provide some relief. 

SB 216, co-authored by state senators Phil Boots (R-Crawfordsville) and Jeff Raatz (R-Richmond), would allow for children and other relatives of certain military veterans to receive educational cost exemptions. It passed the House on a 91-0 vote on April 2, returning to the Senate to sign off on the amendments.