HB 387: Lifting the Curtain Off of Higher Education

This bill was not voted on in the House or the Senate.

The costs for higher education have been exploding around the country leaving many students with massive debt. Though Utah is one of the top subsidizers of higher education in the United States, tuition costs continue to balloon. Slowly, but surely, state lawmakers are getting into the weeds of state funded university and college budgets to try and better understand why costs continue to climb and where ongoing funds should be prioritized.

Representative Justin Fawson’s House Bill 387 completely opens this pandora’s box by requiring that each higher education institution’s “full budget, including a comprehensive chart of accounts” be reported to legislators in a public meeting.

If this information is truly already available, then higher education institutions should not oppose the bill, but if there are more data and information to be revealed, expect fierce opposition. Though the Utah Legislature cannot do anything to fix federal loan programs which encourage tuition increases, full transparency by large government institutions like universities should be a given.