The Iowa Legislature has the chance to belatedly (or perhaps opportunistically) recognize the value of higher education by increasing spending on it by $40 million a year for the next four years. The Board of Regents has factored this spending into its proposed 4 percent tuition increase for Iowa State.

Although we are definitely happy to see the rate at the lowest it has been since 1998-1999’s 3.8 percent increase, we can’t forget that since then, costs have risen 74 percent.

Last year, the university raised tuition by $360 for in-state undergraduate students and by $720 for out-of-state undergraduate students. This raised a little less than $10 million for the university.

For Iowa State to get the same level of additional revenue again this year — along with money to make up the loss of 1,000 students — you’re looking at a total of about $15.9 million.

Iowa State is expecting about $15.4 million of that $40 million pie from the Legislature, so these just about cancel each other out. That isn’t factoring in graduate and professional students, whose numbers also dropped, costing the university money.

We are left with a 4 percent overall tuition increase, which matches the projected Higher Education Cost Index. That works for now but in the future, as funding to the Regents universities increases each year, even that 4 percent increase seems unnecessary.

Sure, some of it goes to financial aid, and some is for increasing faculty salaries to compete with other universities. But after four years of tuition increases, the state funding increase should put us well ahead of where we were in the “good ol’ days” of the late ’90s.

But it is too early to directly criticize the regents or the university for the four-year tuition plan. Next year’s level is appropriate, and there is no real guarantee that, when all is said and done, the money the Legislature promised will materialize.

It is notable that the promised funding was made in an election year — and in one that proved tight enough to cost the Republican majority four spots in the Iowa Senate (splitting it 25-25) and two spots in the Iowa House (now 51-49). It remains to be seen whether the resolve shown prior to the election will continue past it.

Overall, this is obviously excellent news. We applaud all those involved for looking for creative solutions to the problem of reduced university funding. Iowa State’s quality has been dropping for some time, but this should do wonders to reverse that trend.

We remain skeptical about whether this plan will survive the next four years. This is one time, though, that we would love to be proven wrong.