In a show of political muscle, the North Dakota Legislature's majority Republicans defeated proposals for a two-year tuition freeze and gradual reductions of resident college graduates' school loan debts.

"The time is right to give our students, and their parents, a break," said Rep. Scot Kelsh, D-Fargo, who sponsored the tuition measure. "For just two years, we stop the increase. Put the brakes on tuition increases."

North Dakota's Board of Higher Education has already promised to hold tuition increases at 5 percent annually for the next two years if the Legislature approves Gov. John Hoeven's budget recommendations for the state university system.

Kelsh advocated going further and freezing public college tuition rates for two years. His bill included $20 million for North Dakota's university system to make up the lost tuition income. College officials said $25.5 million was needed to fully defray the cost of a two-year freeze.

Tuition and fees at North Dakota's public colleges have almost doubled in the past seven years for full-time resident students, Kelsh said. Double-digit percentage increases in tuition have been common, he said.

Rep. David Monson, R-Osnabrock, said the tuition limits would subsidize the rates of nonresident and foreign college students as well as those of North Dakotans.

Monson, who is the House Republican assistant majority leader, suggested the money would be better used to grant loan relief to students who stay in North Dakota.

The legislation was defeated, 52-37.

"Give some loan forgiveness to those that stay in North Dakota and become taxpayers here themselves," Monson said. "After they graduate, let's keep them here. I'm not so sure we need to give them an incentive to come here in the first place."

Across the hall, North Dakota senators rejected a bill to require the Bank of North Dakota to gradually write down college loan debts for North Dakota students who borrowed money from the bank and remained in the state after graduation.

Students who returned to North Dakota within 10 years of leaving also would have been eligible for debt writedowns. The loan breaks would have occurred in three-year increments, with a maximum of two 25 percent reductions.

"I'd urge to look at what it means if we don't do this," the legislation's sponsor, Sen. Tom Fiebiger, D-Fargo, said during a Senate speech. "I'd urge you to look at what the investment is by sending a message that we would like to do something, but we are unable to."

The measure was defeated, 24-19.

Sen. Gary Lee, R-Casselton, said the state had several programs to offer scholarships and student loan forgiveness for targeted professions. The Senate Education Committee, which reviewed the bill, "seemed to prefer this type of approach, rather than the open-ended, nonspecific single approach in this particular bill," Lee said.

The state-owned bank had opposed the bill. President Eric Hardmeyer estimated it would have to forgive $12.5 million in loans for the 2007-09 budget period, resulting in $875,000 in lost profits.

The tuition freeze bill is HB1521. The debt-reduction bill is SB2393.