Bill Introduced Offering Free Tuition to State Schools

ST. PAUL -- A bill has been introduced in the Minnesota Senate that would offer at least two years of free tuition to Minnesota's colleges and universities. The bill's author is Democrat Kari Dziedzic of Minneapolis.

Republic Senator Jerry Relph of St. Cloud says he is initially skeptical with the idea. He says students need to have 'skin in the game'.

I would prefer to see us put money into reducing the cost of college.  It's gotten way out of hand.

Additionally, Relph says we need to focus more on preparing students for the workforce while they're still in high school.

I think we need to start at a lower level.  I think we need to have kids coming out of high school prepared to enter the workforce.

Relph says the way he reads the bill it would only apply to students who are already enrolled in school taking up to 59 credits, with a possibility for getting a third-year free. Students would have to have an annual family income under $125,000.

There is no estimate yet how much it would cost to fund the legislation.