Do you ever find yourself ordering a pizza with different toppings on each side to make everyone happy? Sometimes we get pepperoni on one side and sausage on the other.
S. 172 is a bill I compare to a pizza with pepperoni on one side and manure on the other. The only problem is I can’t take a piece and reject the other. We are voting on its conference report, which can’t be amended.
I’m a cosponsor of S. 172, a bill authored by Sen. Mike Rose to require the institution of higher education to post their expenditures online. A provision was added to give these colleges regulatory relief on the building process. (Currently, the schools have to go through an expensive, time consuming process before they can begin building projects.) So transparency and flexibility go hand in hand right? Most will agree.
However, it was recently discovered that the bill includes an increase on the tuition waivers granted to students. What happens when an out of state student gets a tuition waiver? The tuition goes up for SC kids. Many have made the argument that these waivers are used to attract out of state students with high SAT scores to get higher marks on the U.S. News rankings.
Another problem is an allowance of a 10% overage in construction costs without oversight.
So, my predicament is: Do I vote aye or reject the whole pizza?
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