Post-Secondary Education

If a Minnesota student wants to have the experience of attending college in another country, he or she doesn’t have to go far — and the cost can be much less than the tuition paid at a public, in-state university. That is because Minnesota has a tuition-reciprocity agreement with its northern neighbor, the Canadian province of Manitoba.

Every state in this region funds a loan forgiveness program to assist certain individuals with their college debts. These programs most commonly target help for graduates entering a specific profession such as education or health care.

The U.S. state with the nation’s lowest unemployment rate (2.3 percent as of March) will try to attract more skilled workers with $6 million worth of new scholarships and loan repayments. North Dakota’s HB 1171 seeks to address what many policymakers have said is the state’s No. 1 economic issue — workforce shortages.

Two years ago, four public universities in South Dakota began offering in-state tuition to Iowa undergraduate students. In October, state officials announced that the plan had begun to pay off.

In North Dakota, two features of the state’s economy have persisted for years now: some of the lowest jobless rates in the nation, and workforce shortages challenging individual employers and entire economic sectors. 
“By most estimates, we have over 20,000 unfilled jobs,” notes North Dakota Sen. Brad Bekkedahl.

Would scholarships or a loan-forgiveness program — with some strings attached — help fix this mismatch between worker supply and demand? And which of these two options would work best? Those questions were explored during the legislative interim and will likely emerge again when lawmakers convene in early 2019.

HR 2353, or the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act of 2006, was reauthorized by President Donald Trump through fiscal year 2023, under the new title Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21^st Century Act (Perkins V). The act was first established in 1984, then reauthorized in 1998, 2006 and now 2018 to increase the quality of career and technical education (CTE). This act adds $100 million over six years—an 11 percent increase over the fiscal year 2018 funding levels—aimed to expand the reach of CTE programs.

Five years ago, a little more than 2,000 students from 150 different U.S. university campuses were asked the following question: Have you ever decided against buying (or renting) a textbook because it was too expensive?

Sixty-five percent of the respondents to this U.S. Public Interest Research Group survey said “yes,” and nearly all of them also noted that they were concerned the decision would hurt them academically.

The survey results helped bring attention to a sometimes overlooked facet of college expenses — the cost of books and supplies. During the most recent school year, students at four-year public colleges spent an average of $1,250 on these materials, according to estimates from the College Board.

“If you walk into a Barnes & Noble, it’s hard to find any book that costs more than $40,” Minnesota Sen. Rich Draheim says. “It’s the exact opposite for college students. I understand that for specialized classes, costs are going to be high. But I think we can do better with what is offered for the more general or introductory courses.”

Construction is predicted to be one of the fastest growing sectors in the next decade, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In order to meet this demand, states have begun to enact new legislation and programs aimed at increasing the number of students attending vocational and technical education programs.

In 2017, Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam signed a ...