Introduction
Public universities increasingly have abandoned their mission to serve the citizens of their states. Partly they do so because increasing portions of their tuition revenue come from out-of-state students. Public universities can make a profit even if they don’t educate their own citizens properly. Partly they do so because they can recruit students from other states for their athletic teams and orchestras. Universities that no longer depend on their own state’s citizens for enrollments have no incentive to reform the state’s K-12 education. Effective education reform requires state policymakers to ensure that their public university systems rededicate themselves to educating the citizens of their state.
The North Carolina Board of Governors’ Policy on Nonresident Undergraduate Enrollment provides a simple and effective template for our model In-State Enrollment Act. North Carolina’s Policy caps out-of-state enrollment for entering freshmen at 18% for each public university campus. This policy already works well in North Carolina—and 18% seems an entirely reasonable cap for out-of-state enrollment for public universities. It allows universities to attract significant number of students from beyond the state, but to ensure that, with 5 of 6 students from within the state, the public university system’s focus remains the education of the children of the state’s taxpaying citizens.
Notes
Financial Sanctions
Our model Act provides sanctions for universities that disobey this law: for every out-of-state student accepted above the cap, the university loses twice as much state money as the tuition it receives from that student. We there should be someeffective financial sanction against scofflaw universities, but state policymakers will want to choose an appropriate financial sanction to suit their state. We urge state policymakers to regard our suggestion for a financial sanction as a rough draft for them to emend.
Foreign Citizens and Sanctuary Campuses
The model In-State Enrollment Act naturally complements Section E [“Citizen Priority”] and Section F [“Sanctuary Campus Prohibition”] of our model College Finances Act. These two sections limit tuition and student enrollment from foreign sources, limit eligibility for special admissions categories to state residents, and prohibit “sanctuary campuses” that protect, employ, and enroll illegal aliens. But while these might be natural complements to the In-State Enrollment Act, they are not the same issue. Policymakers may choose to join these different pieces of model legislation, but we prefer to present this model Act with a simple focus on out-of-state enrollment caps, so as not to muddle its rationale.
Residency Status
This bill turns on the definition of residency status for tuition purposes—which for many states is legal residence for 12 months or more by the student and his family. State policymakers should make sure that they approve of their state’s definition of residency status for tuition purposes. One reform might be to confine residency status to US citizens and legal residents, and not to illegal aliens, even if they have benefitted from programs such as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). State policymakers will decide what is appropriate—but they should be sure to take the time to define residency status carefully, and not simply assume the status quo benefits their state.
Model Legislative Text
Section A [“Out-of-State Enrollment Cap”]
- Each institution of higher education that receives state funding shall enroll no more than 18% of students classified as nonresidents for tuition purposes in the fall first-time undergraduate class.
- Any institution of higher education that receives state funding that exceeds its nonresident enrollment cap prescribed in Section A, Subsection 1 shall have its State operating budget reduced. The reduction shall be made, on a non-recurring basis, immediately after the Board of Governors reviews final fall semester enrollment figures. The budget reduction shall be 200% of the tuition paid by the number of nonresident students for tuition purposes in the entering fall first-time class enrolled in excess of nonresident enrollment cap prescribed in Section A, Subsection 1.
- It is the Legislature’s expectation that institutions of higher education that receive state funding will admit only academically well-qualified out-of-state students. In any year in which the average combined SAT score or ACT composite score for students classified as first-time nonresidents for tuition purposes are below that for students classified as first-time residents for tuition purposes at an institution of higher education that receives state funding, the Legislature shall require a written report of explanation from the president and the board of that institution.
Section B [“Separability”]
If any provision of this chapter, or the application of any provision to any person or circumstance, is held to be invalid, the remainder of this chapter and the application of its provisions to any other person or circumstance shall not be affected thereby.
The National Association of Scholars, in consultation with other supporters and friends of the Civics Alliance, drafted these model bills to translate into legislative language the principles in the Civics Alliance’s Civics Curriculum Statement & Open Letter. Just as these bills have been drafted with the expectation that different states will modify them as they see fit, they also have been drafted with the expectation that not every supporter of the Civics Alliance will endorse these bills or every part of them. Individual Civics Alliance signatories and supporters should not be assumed to have endorsed these bills, unless they say so explicitly.