Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Senator Sawyer Introduces Ambition Penalty Relief Act


Columbus—Today, State Senator Tom Sawyer (D-Akron) introduced the Ambition Penalty Relief Act, to address the growing trend among Ohio state colleges and universities to charge additional credit-hour fees to students who take extra classes.  These fees are often referred to as “overload fees” or “student excess credit fees.”

“While this practice isn’t necessarily a new one, the increasing size of the fees make it unfair,” said Senator Sawyer.  “School officials justify these fees on the grounds that they are needed for long-deferred capital maintenance costs, but these unfairly applied overload fees are simply ambition penalties.”

Many state universities in Ohio charge overload fees for students who seek additional coursework beyond the school’s credit-hour cap.  The University of Cincinnati charges the highest rate of overload fees at $450 per credit hour, followed by Kent State University at $440 (beginning in Fall 2012), and Wright State University at $365.

“These fees serve as disincentives for students to pursue a second major or to graduate early,” Senator Sawyer said.  “It is even more unfortunate that these disincentives are intensifying at a time when we are trying to encourage on-time or early graduation.”

The Ambition Penalty Relief Act works in three ways to correct the problem:

·      Overload Fee Cap:  The bill caps the “overload fees” that public universities in Ohio can charge their students. The cap is set at the marginal cost of the last full-time tuition credit hour. For example: if a university charges $4,000 in tuition, covering up to 16 credit hours, then the university cannot charge an overload fee in excess of $250 for credit hours over 16.  (In this example, $4,000 ÷ 16 = $250).
·    Capital Appropriations for Deferred Maintenance: In exchange for capping overload fees, the bill provides funding relief to public universities to hold them harmless from the cap ($31.5 million).
·      Re-enactment of Former Capital Funding Method:  To distribute the supplemental capital appropriation of $31.5 million, the bill re-enacts the former method of allocating capital appropriations to universities.  In doing so, the bill restores rule-making power for the Chancellor of the Board of Regents to develop a higher education capital funding formula.

“This legislation will address a very significant piece of the student debt crisis facing our state and nation today,” said Senator Sawyer. “My hope is that this legislation will be a point of initial departure for addressing the broader issues of rising college costs and student debt loads.”

The Ambition Penalty Relief Act already has bipartisan support in the Senate.  Senator Peggy Lehner (R-Kettering), the Chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee, and Senator Bill Seitz (R-Cincinnati) have agreed to co-sponsor the legislation.

The Caucus


Minority Leader Eric H. Kearney - Cincinnati - 9th District
Assistant Minority Leader Joe Schiavoni - Canfield - 33rd District
Minority Whip Nina Turner - Cleveland - 25th District
Assistant Minority Whip Edna Brown - Toledo - 11th District
Senator Tom Sawyer - Akron - 28th District
Senator Charleta B. Tavares - Columbus - 15th District
Senator Shirley Smith - Cleveland - 21st District
Senator Michael J. Skindell - Cleveland - 23rd District
Senator Lou Gentile - Steubenville - 30th District
Senator Capri S. Cafaro - Hubbard - 32nd District

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