Youth solon seeks freeze, regulation of tuition hikes

Kabataan party-List rep. Raymond Palatino wants a 3 year freeze to tuition and other fee hikes as well as the regulation of future increases.
Palatino made the statement amid Commission on Higher Education data showing that average rate of tuition and other fees in schools has doubled over the last ten years.
“The tuition and other fee increases in the last ten years are questionable because the amount did not it primarily go to improvement of student welfare and teachers’ salary. A disturbing trend is that as school fees increase, so are the profits of school owners. This makes tuition and other fee increase an abused mechanism serving the interest of capitalist educators instead of serving to provide better facilities and training for students and higher salaries for teachers,” Palatino said.

CHED has approved 282 colleges and universities to increase tuition and other fees for school year 2011-2012.

 Palatino filed in Congress HB no. 3708 or the “Three-year Tuition Moratorium Act” and HB no. 4286 or the “Tuition and Other Fees Regulation Act.”

“The wisdom of those two legislative measures resides in the fact that they aim to ultimately re-direct the path of our education system which has become so grossly commercialized, generating a huge number of out-of-school youth unable to attain the high cost of education,” Palatino said, adding:

“These bills address the crisis of commercialized education through a two-pronged approach. First, a three-year tuition moratorium aims to provide immediate economic relief to parents and students in light of unjust school fee increase and huge profits of school owners. The break or pause accorded by the hike freeze will provide an opening for us to discuss tuition regulation and strengthen the democratic participation of stakeholders such as students, parents, teachers and non-academic employees in future proposals for school fee increase.”

Palatino also reminded CHED to make of good use its regulatory powers  to address the “crazy accession” of tuition and other fees.

Palatino  cited the the Supreme Court decision in 1992 in the case of Lina vs. Carino, which asserted that the Department of Education, Culture and Sports (now the CHED in the case of tertiary education) has the power to set guidelines for and limit the imposition of tuition adjustments.