while they say nothing is certain except death and taxes you can add the cost of college tuition going up to that list it seems to be on a steady rise especially over the last few years as inflation's increased and many schools are passing the added costs onto their students today the Rucker Board of Governors approved a 4% increase on tuition and fees for students attending in September but some New Jersey lawmakers are considering a new bill that would cap those increases at 2% moving forward Ted goldber spoke to the Bill's sponsors along with Advocates of the move to see what it would mean and who's on board the Rucker's budget for next year has been approved and totals $5.6 billion that means students will pay 4% more in tuition and student fees with larger increases for rooming and food we need to do things better and do things differently as we progress towards Financial sustainability this budget represents early starting position for that it's saddening it closes the door to to thousands of students who uh have said you know maybe I'll look into Rucker's University and suddenly Rucker's University is outside of that pay this comes after a 6% increase in tuition fees last year according to Ruckers the new 4% bump is needed to account for infl salary increases and more expensive health benefits student body president Jack Ramirez says he was disappointed to learn about the unanimous vote from the Rucker Board of Governors everyone deserves a fair pay and fair wage uh for the work that they do but it brings up the question of you know who what's the University designed for the university is designed for for students a new bill in the assembly could cap tuition hikes year-over-year assemblyman Cody Miller has co-sponsored a bill that would limit public schools to 2% increases I get the student requests all the time about not being able to afford books or tuition students living in their cars without this Bill Miller says the future of public schools in New Jersey looks bleak we're going to see more closures we're going to see more closures and mergers of these four-year institutions and possibly two years if tuition is keep keep increasing there's going to be a higher chance of students dropping out because they're already struggling with what they're paying for now Lila Edwards is a junior at Rowan she says things have gotten a lot more expensive in the few years she's been a student and this bill would be a welcome relief there's already a a difference between freshman year how much we're paying versus our Jun year I can't really depend on always that my parents can always kind of hold the for because they still have their own type of personal bills and school's already expensive I'm the youngest out of five public College Representatives argue a 2% cap could force schools to make painful Cuts you may see a reduction in the amount of support services or reducing down how frequently we even offer a course it those those are all different things that they think about and they have to weigh individual to their campuses Jennifer Keys Maloney leads the New Jersey Association of state colleges and universities quality cannot be diminished and so ultimately if you're going to have a cap then additional funding has to come from somewhere Keys Maloney says more State funding could help but what about making up that difference with room and board assemblyman Miller doesn't anticipate schools going that route room and board in some instances is outside of the cost of the institution because they partner with private individuals where they rent housing from them so I don't think they're going to jack up the costs on room and board because some of those costs are out of their control and I don't want to limit them on that because they don't have any control over that Miller says the new state budget avoids cuts of $80 million for public schools Statewide including 20 million for community colleges but that may not be enough for schools to function as they have without more Cuts or different sources of funding for NJ Spotlight news I'm Ted Goldberg [Music]