Boise State Plans To Increase Student Fees

Idahoans can expect to pay $37 more per semester to attend Boise State University full-time next year.

Boise State President Charles Ruch sent the state Board of Education a proposal on Wednesday to raise fees for instate students from $790 to $827, excluding health insurance.

Students from outside the state enrolling at Boise State for the first time would pay $827 in fees plus $2,673 for tuition.

The $37 fee increase is much less than the $91 package requested by various university departments. Even so, some students said it would be tough to come up with the extra money.

Board members are likely to endorse the increase at their April 20-21 meeting in Idaho Falls.

They have few options. After giving $40 million in property tax relief, lawmakers this year had little left in the state’s general fund budget for colleges and universities. They approved a $168.5 million package, a 2.5-increase over the current academic year.

In the past two decades, higher education’s share of the state’s general tax budget has fallen from nearly 21 percent to less than 13 percent while the share of the budget the schools get from student fees has jumped from just over 6 percent to more than 19 percent.