Heidi Alexander: “I thank the Chair. The rest of the story is about why tuition is going up. As a result, why are loans going up? There…”

“I thank the Chair. The rest of the story is about why tuition is going up. As a result, why are loans going up? There are several reasons. The main reason, which every college president and every Governor knows--and the Presiding Officer who was the Governor of West Virginia--college tuition is rising at public universities and community colleges across the country, where three out of four of our students go, is because of Federal Medicaid mandates on States that are soaking up dollars that would otherwise go to the University of West Virginia, the University of Tennessee, the University of Iowa, and other public institutions. Every college President knows that and every Governor knows that. That didn't just start 3 years ago. That was going on when I was Governor 25 or 30 years ago. I even came to Washington and said to President Reagan: You take all of Medicaid and we will take all of kindergarten through the 12th grade education. We want out of this situation every year of having to use State dollars to fund one- third or whatever you think we ought to be paying for Medicaid. If we had made that swap 30 years ago, if the Federal Government had taken over all of Medicaid and the States had taken over all of kindergarten through the 12th grade education, the States would have come out about $4.5 billion ahead.…”