Minnesota college students face mounting loan debt - Sharon Rolenc, Daily Planet

Republican state lawmakers in Minnesota Monday refused Democratic-Farmer-Labor Governor Mark Dayton's proposed budget compromise, sticking to an all-cuts approach to close the state's deficit. Proposed cuts to higher education currently amount to 14 percent, resulting in the lowest funding level in over a decade. Joshua Winters, executive director of the Minnesota Public Interest Research Group (MPIRG), says tuition has doubled at many of the state's public colleges in the past decade, and is already out of reach for many young people. "It becomes less and less, frankly, a public education, and more and more an education that's only affordable for those with the means. As a result, many qualified high school graduates are going to have a much more difficult decision when they look forward, in deciding whether they can afford to get a higher education."