Tuition is ‘as nearly free as possible,’ despite AG’s assertion otherwise, governor says
By Howard Fischer, Capitol Media via The Daily Courier
Arizona’s three universities are in compliance with constitutional requirements to keep instruction “as nearly free as possible,” Gov. Doug Ducey said Thursday, despite what Attorney General Mark Brnovich contends.
“Our universities are accessible and affordable,” 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 that the state has started to restore some of those cuts.
What that means, he said, is that 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. News and World Report saying Arizona State University is the No. 1 most innovative school in the country, “beating out MIT and Stanford.”