LETTERS: TUITION PLAN BURDENS TAXPAYERS

To the editor:

I have to disagree with the new in-state tuition for out-of-state students from Illinois at Southeast Missouri State University. The university seems to have forgotten its mission. Missouri -- that is, taxpayers through elected representatives -- has chosen to subsidize the cost of educating our students. This state subsidy has enabled in-state tuition to be lower than the actual cost per student. The premise is that the state benefits from a more educated population. The same argument cannot be made for subsidizing out-of-state students. This plan to use Missouri tax dollars to educate Illinois students is objectionable to me as a taxpayer.

Obviously, the cost for in-state students will be adjusted upward to cover this added expense. I am surprised that anyone at the university finds this idea defensible. Furthermore, I was equally surprised that your Jan. 27 editorial took no exception to the idea. If there is no law against such a plan, there should be. Toward that end, I am forwarding these thoughts to state Rep. Mary Kasten and state Sen. Peter Kinder.

The goal of Southeast should be to provide quality higher education for students in its service region at the lowest possible price. Many in the region are of modest means and should not be asked to subsidize students from Illinois. The goal should not be to be big for bigness sake. Bigger should not be confused with better. If it were, Harvard would not turn down many promising applicants each year.

While I believe this proposal is unacceptable to taxpayers, I can support cooperative efforts between neighboring states. An example is the Missouri-Kansas reciprocal agreement that allows us to trade places in our dental school for places in Kansas' school of architecture. This exemplifies the type of cooperative effort that eliminates costly duplication of services. Perhaps the university could look for some sort of cooperative venture with Southern Illinois University to the benefit of all.

BRAD WITTENBORN

Cape Girardeau