The Utah State Legislature’s proposed measures to pad tuition revenue are both flawed and ineffective.

Forcing fifth-year seniors, remedial math students and those seeking to retake a course to boost a grade represent backwards ways to raise what would amount to only a few cents in the scheme of higher education’s budget. Despite the pressure they feel from the state Legislature, the Regents would do well to drop them and find alternatives.

Charging the full cost of higher education?roughly equivalent to out-of-state tuition?for remedial math courses amounts to socio economic discrimination. Students weak in basic math skills are more likely to come from disadvantaged backgrounds. They may already be the victims of a public education system fraught with inequities.

A university education is a chance to better these students’ prospects, but their status leaves them most vulnerable to tuition hikes. Apparently, some would like to see the U take a few steps backward since U President Bernie Machen launched a campaign to make a university education more accessible to this very group.

Another measure would require students who take more than 130 percent of the credit hours required by their degrees to pay the full cost of their “extra” classes.

This measure would hurt students with high school advanced placement credit hours, those returning to school after an extended break, and students who want to explore their academic environment and perhaps gain a few extra skills.

The final measure, the most legitimate one, would require students who retake courses to pay the full cost of their second try. Why should taxpayers fund a student’s attempt to boost a wilting GPA? Other arrangements can be made in the case of medical or other catastrophic problems. However, when compared with other members of the Utah System of Higher Education, U students do not frequently retake classes and any revenue gained from those who do would be a drop in the bucket.

The same could be said of the other two measures. But for the students who foot the bill, the affects can be insurmountable.