Public universities would be disproportionately subject to sanctions proposed in Congress for institutions that raise their tuition by more than twice the rate of inflation over a three-year period, according to a report released this week by researchers at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

That is the case even though the average tuition and fees charged at the four-year public institutions in the Wisconsin study was $5,383, nearly one-quarter of the average rate of $20,257 charged by the four-year private colleges that were analyzed.

The report, “The Impact of Cost-Containment Proposals Associated With the Reauthorization of the Higher Education Act,” concludes that 47 percent of the 587 public four-year colleges studied would be subject to sanctions proposed in the College Cost Reduction Act of 2007 (HR 2669). That compares with 28 percent of the 526 private institutions in the analysis.

The bill, a “budget reconciliation” measure, passed the U.S. House of Representatives last week, though President Bush has threatened to veto it over issues unrelated to the cost-control provisions. Senators are debating similar legislation this week.

The measures both include a provision that would assign institutions a “college-affordability index” based on a comparison of their rate of tuition growth to inflation. Colleges that raised their tuition by more than twice the rate of inflation over three years would be required to provide the government with an explanation of the factors contributing to the jump. If such colleges failed to slow their tuition increases after two years, they would be put on “affordability-alert status” by the Education Department.

In their study, the Wisconsin researchers concluded that many of the institutions that charge the most would be protected from the penalties because they could gain substantially higher revenue through tuition increases than lower-priced institutions could if both raised their rates by the same percentages. —Sara Hebel