For the first time since 1981, Senate Democrats and House Republicans reached an agreement last week that will enable a tuition freeze for Iowa’s college students.

The planned tuition freeze will be enacted at Iowa’s three public universities and is a part of nearly $900 million spending plan in education funding.

Freezing tuition will continue to make Iowa’s public universities cheaper to attend than surrounding universities located in Illinois, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

The Board of Regents, which governs the state universities, proposed to freeze tuition last year as long as they received an increase in state funding.

The regents will get $558.6 million from this deal, a $13.6 million increase from the current year.

General funding for ISU will receive an over $4 million increase, University of Iowa will receive almost a $6 million increase and the University of Northern Iowa will receive a roughly $2 million increase.

The deal agreed upon did not include money to replace tuition set-aside. The proposed grant to replace it was a $40 million need-based grant.

Tuition set-aside is a program in which money is factored into the price of students’ tuition to then be used to fund need-based scholarships to low-income students.

The Iowa Senate approved a bill providing $964 million for Iowa’s three public universities, community colleges and some other education programs on April 18. The deal the House and Senate reached last week was part of the final spending package for higher education programs.

The final bill will be voted on this week.