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1997 SESSION

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971018204
SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 283 AMENDMENT IN THE NATURE OF A SUBSTITUTE (Proposed by the House Committee on Appropriations on February 12, 1997) (Patron Prior to Substitute--Senator Edwards) Expressing the objective of the Commonwealth to maintain and improve the quality of public higher education and to return, subject to the availability of sufficient general fund revenue, to a policy of funding an average of 70 percent of the cost of education of in-state students at the public colleges and universities.

WHEREAS, Virginia's public colleges and universities must be of high quality and must be affordable for the citizens of the Commonwealth; and

WHEREAS, the fiscal exigencies of the early 1990s required that scarce general fund resources be directed toward entitlements, public safety and elementary and secondary education; and

WHEREAS, the public institutions of higher education maintained their quality during this period of economic difficulty by restructuring their programs and by increasing tuition and fees; and

WHEREAS, the Commonwealth's traditional policy of the past has been to provide sufficient general fund revenue to finance about 70 percent of the cost of education for in-state students at the public colleges and universities; and

WHEREAS, by action of the General Assembly tuition and educational and general fees were frozen at the fiscal year 1996 level for fiscal years 1997 and 1998 while more than $200 million in general funds were added to the operating budgets of the public institutions; and

WHEREAS, current state support still approximates only 50 percent of the cost of education of the public colleges and universities; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED by the Senate, the House of Delegates concurring, That the objectives of the Commonwealth shall be to maintain and improve the quality of the public institutions of higher education and, subject to the availability of general fund revenues, to return to a policy of funding an average of about 70 percent of the cost of education of in-state students at such institutions.