They scrapped college tuitions, then scrimped on subsidies

Congress forbade state universities and colleges (SUCs) from collecting tuition starting 2018. Same with local ones (LUCs) of provinces and cities. It was bandied as the first improvement under the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act.

Yet Congress forgot the basic ingredient for quality education: new money. In fact, its yearly allotments for tuition-free SUCs/LUCs has been diminishing.

The House of Reps recently approved P100.8-billion budget for SUCs/LUCs in 2024. It is 5.75 percent or P6.155 billion lower than this year’s P107 billion.

And that P107 billion is only half of what SUCs/LUCs need in order to maintain previous quality levels. Meaning, this year’s budget should be at least P214 billion.

That’s why there’s unrest in SUC campuses in Metro Manila. Professors and students are protesting deteriorating facilities and unfulfilled salary increases.

Affected are University of the Philippines, Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Philippine Normal University, Eulogio Amang Rodriguez Institute for Science and Technology and Technological University of the Philippines.

Demonstrators want P9-billion confidential-intelligence funds of high officials realigned to SUCs/LUCs. They demand payment of the last tranche of promised standardized wages for academic and nonacademic personnel.

Problem is that Congress miscalculated in 2018. That year it allocated only P65-billion subsidies for SUCs/LUCs. It was barely enough for maintenance and operations, salaries and training, new facilities and equipment, and scholarships.

Congress erred worse. The P65 billion was only for 2018’s graduating seniors and incoming freshmen. There were no sophomores and juniors. The decade-long implementation of the Kindergarten-to-Grade-12 program had interrupted college enrollments by two years.

Then Congress scrapped tuitions. In a flash it forfeited five to 12 percent of SUC/LUC funding. Rich students who used to pay tuition benefitted the most. Only 12 percent of college enrollees are penurious but scholastically deserving.

The P65-billion subsidy needed in 2018 was projected to swell 35 percent every three years. By 2021 it should’ve been P90 billion. And by 2024