Legislator introduces bill to reimburse campuses for tuition waivers

Rep. Jacob Bachmeier, D-Havre, said he is working on a bill to guarantee funding to reimburse colleges and universities for constitutionally mandated tuition waivers, a move, he said, that could increase recruitment to Montana University System schools.

He said the Montana University System Board of Regents already takes tuition waivers into account in the budget and refunds the money for the waivers, although it is not mandated.

Bachmeier said that if these funds are guaranteed, as his House Bill 254 would do, money will always be behind these waivers so colleges and universities will be...