Measure seeks to aid CU health sciences

Berny Morson, Rocky Mountain News

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Top legislative leaders are trying to steer $10 million to the University of Colorado's health science center to counter debilitating funding cuts during the early years of this decade.

All of higher education saw sharp cuts in state aid when the Colorado economy foundered. Tuition increases made up much of the lost money at most campuses.

But medical education is so expensive that tuition can't make up the difference without excluding all but the wealthiest students, CU officials say.

Even with medical school tuition at $22,000 a year, CU is third from the bottom in per-student funding among 73 similar institutions.

"We're at the point where those four years cost more than you can borrow," CU president Hank Brown told lawmakers recently.

The approximately $10 million CU would get under Senate Bill 97 would make only a small difference, Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald said Monday.

"It does tell the faculty, though, that we're making an attempt to not make them the 73rd out of 73 public institutions in the country," Fitz-Gerald said.

Fitz-Gerald is the Senate sponsor of the bill. The House sponsor is Majority Leader Alice Madden, D-Boulder. The bill is awaiting a hearing in the Senate state affairs committee.

State funding for the medical campus declined by $24.4 million since 2003.

A strong medical campus is important to the economy, Fitz-Gerald said. She is also concerned about the students.

"I hear kids come out of medical school with $200,000 worth of debt," she said.

Fitz-Gerald proposes to take the $10 million from money the state received in a massive settlement states made during the 1990s with tobacco companies in a suit over health effects of smoking. The state used $20 million to shore up basic services during the recession years.

Under Fitz-Gerald's bill, 49 percent of that money will be shifted to CU, and the rest to other health-related issues.

With little new money available in the state budget this year, other interests will undoubtedly eye the same money.

A report prepared last year for the Colorado Commission on Higher Education showed that state funding would have to increase by $832 million for Colorado colleges and universities to reach the national average.

Brown and CSU President Larry Penley are exploring the possibility of a ballot issue. Both say it won't happen this year.