(January 22, 2001) Before the House Higher Education Finance Committee Jan. 19, David Laird, president of the Minnesota Private College Council, urged the 2001 Legislature to consider three ways to ensure greater investments in higher education, both public and private, to bring maximum returns.

One recommendation is to "double the direct investment in Minnesota students by increasing to 20 percent the share of state funding that flows to them through the Minnesota State Grant Program." Not all members agreed with him.

Laird's other two recommendations were: the state increase funding to $5 million annually for the TRIO program that helps prepare middle and high school students for college, particularly for those from low-income families with parents who did not attend a post-secondary institution, and develop fair and equitable indicators of all colleges and universities in the state, and use that information to direct state subsidies in the most appropriate way.

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