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.
