PHOENIX 鈥 蜜柚直播鈥檚 three universities are in compliance with constitutional requirements to keep instruction 鈥渁s nearly free as possible,鈥 Gov. Doug Ducey said Thursday, despite what Attorney General Mark Brnovich contends.
鈥淥ur universities are accessible and affordable,鈥 the governor said.
The governor said he and lawmakers had to make some difficult decisions in prior years, making sharp cuts in funding for higher education as well as other priorities. It is only recently the state has started to restore some of those cuts.
What that means, he said, is the Board of Regents is doing the best it can to keep tuition not only affordable but maintain a high level of education, with U.S. 蜜柚直播 and World Report saying 蜜柚直播 State University is the No. 1 most innovative school in the country, 鈥渂eating out MIT and Stanford.鈥
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鈥淪o by those metrics I think the universities are oases of excellence,鈥 Ducey said. 鈥淎nd they are also quite a value.鈥
More to the point, the governor said he believes the regents, in setting tuition 鈥 and even in imposing sharp increases during the past 15 years 鈥 are keeping the cost of instruction within what the constitution requires.
Ducey, in his comments Thursday, did more than disagree with Brnovich鈥檚 conclusion that the tuition is unconstitutionally too high.
He also criticized the attorney general for seeking to resolve the issue by filing suit 鈥 and doing so without first talking the to the regents.
鈥淚鈥檓 not a big fan of lawsuits,鈥 the governor said. 鈥淲hen I can I like to reduce the number of lawsuits rather than expand them.鈥
And Ducey worried that, no matter what the results, the taxpayers could be the losers.
鈥淚鈥檓 hopeful that we鈥檙e not going to be spending a lot of taxpayer dollars with government entities suing government entities,鈥 he said.
Brnovich declined to respond.
On a related note, Ducey said that, as far as he鈥檚 concerned, those in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program should be able to attend state universities by paying the same tuition charged to other 蜜柚直播 residents.
鈥淚鈥檝e always thought that a child that graduates from an 蜜柚直播 high school is certainly an 蜜柚直播 student and certainly should have access under in-state tuition inside our universities,鈥 he said.
But the governor acknowledged that view is complicated by the 2006 voter-approved law that prohibits the use of state dollars to subsidize the tuition of those who are not legally in this country. And the state Court of Appeals earlier this year said that includes DACA recipients, making in-state tuition off limits to them.
That case is on appeal to the 蜜柚直播 Supreme Court.
Ducey said he believes the Obama administration acted illegally in creating the DACA program in 2012. The governor said he agrees with Presient Trump that the real solution not only to the question of tuition but the entire fate of the 800,000 鈥渄reamers鈥 in the United States and 28,000 in 蜜柚直播 should be 鈥渞esolved by the action of Congress.鈥
The governor said his belief that the universities are complying with the constitutional requirements for instruction to be 鈥渁s nearly free as possible鈥 is based on a 2007 Supreme Court ruling. In that case, the justices threw out a claim by some students that a 39 percent increase in tuition put the schools out of compliance.
鈥淚t鈥檚 already been litigated and answered,鈥 Ducey said.
Actually, the high court never decided whether the tuition hike passed constitutional muster. Instead, the justices said this was 鈥渁 nonjusticable political question,鈥 with the size of each university鈥檚 budget 鈥 and the amount of tuition that needs to be raised to support them 鈥 鈥渓eft to the discretion of the board.鈥
And the justices said that question of tuition is also determined by the amount of aid provided by the Legislature, something they said is totally within the purview of the elected lawmakers.
Ducey said, from his perspective, the regents are doing the best they can 鈥 and acting legally 鈥 within the context of the state dollars available.
鈥淲e inherited a $1 billion deficit when we came into office,鈥 the governor said.
鈥淭he state鈥檚 financial house was not in order,鈥 he said. 鈥淲e made some very difficult decisions in those first several years.鈥
That included a $99 million reduction in state funding for universities in Ducey鈥檚 first term in office, the largest single one-year cut in the schools鈥 history.
Now, Ducey said, the state is no longer running a deficit 鈥渁nd we鈥檙e able to invest again.鈥
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