Preston Bryant is a Republican who has represented Lynchburg and part of Amherst County in the Virginia House of Delgates since 1996.

Take, for example, the tuition policy imposed a couple of weeks ago by delegates and senators on our public colleges and universities.

It's been argued that for way too long the General Assembly has hamstrung our schools by prohibiting them from setting tuition rates according to what the state's higher education marketplace would allow.

Instead, legislators and bureaucrats have for many years gone by a formula that requires the state to pay at least 75 percent of an in-state student's education so that tuition will have to cover no more than a quarter of those costs. Sounds good: it's all in the name of keeping a college education as affordable as possible to as many Virginians as possible.

Trouble is, the state really hasn't done a very good job of holding up its end of the deal. For many years, Virginia has famously underfunded our 15 four-year schools and 24 two-year schools.

And as a result of the state's failure to more fully fund higher ed, only about half of our four-year schools today are keeping tuition costs at or below the 25 percent mark. Some students at hard-pressed schools necessarily are having to pay more.

This is not to say, however, that the state hasn't made progress. It has. Over the last handful of years, about $460 million of new money has been put into higher education. But when budget cuts hit over the past year as a result of the economy's downturn, more than $300 million was cut from our colleges and universities.

In order to make up for these cuts, a number of schools imposed mid-year tuition "surcharges." The average increase was about $225, while some were as high as $400.

Still, despite these increases to help offset state budget cuts, many of our schools are sucking wind. Degree programs are being cut, and faculty and staff are being laid off.

It was proposed in the 2003 General Assembly -- which adjourned just a couple weeks ago -- that we get away from short-sighted, constraining tuition formulas and let each college and university's governing board determine tuition and fees based on what state and local free-market forces would allow.

Each school, then, would have more autonomy. Each would have greater control over its own revenues. And in an unpredictable economy, each would be able to respond more nimbly to boons and busts (especially the busts).

Budget-writers in the House of Delegates and Senate, however, were hesitant to give the schools too much revenue-raising leeway. They remembered a year ago when legislators encouraged schools to raise tuition no more than 9 percent, only to watch in frustration as George Mason University imposed a whopping 25 percent tuition hike.

So this year's proposal to give schools more freedom to set tuition largely free from General Assembly constraint, well, it became a tougher sell than might have been predicted.

Instead, the just-adjourned General Assembly set a hard policy that prevents colleges and universities from raising tuition rates on in-state undergraduates more than 5 percent, though they did so after cementing the recent tuition surcharges. They also allowed faculty and staff salary increases to be included in the rate calculation. So after all is said and done, tuition will be allowed to go up about 7 or 8 percent on average.

No, this tuition cap is far from the market approach initially proposed. However, the legislature did take the baby step of allowing each school to set graduate school tuition according to market rates. They'll also be allowed greater flexibility in setting all out-of-state students' tuition.

Further, the General Assembly put $4.5 million more toward financial aid, bringing the total amount of state tuition assistance up to about $70 million.

While all these steps will be enough to offset cuts to a half-dozen or so small institutions as well as the community college system as a whole, they'll do little for most of the rest. Many schools, especially the larger ones, will continue playing catch-up - they will continue to suck wind.

Yes, it can be said that some legislators are hesitant for good reason to let each school set its own tuition - after all, who wants to sit by and watch some inflict 25 percent increases on students? But it also should continue to be argued that market forces are better "regulators" of tuition than a government's artificial price controls.

Our nationally renowned colleges and universities need to be untethered from legislators' policies that hold them back. There are some 38,000 new students projected to hit our higher ed system over the next decade, and our schools need to be allowed to better position themselves financially if they're to absorb them all. Adopting a market approach will do that.

If an institution inflicts unreasonable tuition increases, then students' decisions to go elsewhere will drive them back in line. Our Virginia colleges and universities are highly competitive. They're all competing for our state's best and brightest. Our high school seniors (and their parents) know it's a buyer's market out there -- if one good university has set its tuition too high, then there's another equally good university right down the road offering a better deal.

Virginia has developed an enviable system of higher education. We've done so almost in spite of ourselves. Our colleges and universities have flourished over the past half-century as our state has grown and its economic base has become increasingly sophisticated, and despite policymakers' arcane regulations.

But our schools are now beginning to sputter. Those arcane regulations are beginning to hurt.

It's not too late, however, for state lawmakers to adopt changes that'll allow our schools to regain their foothold and better compete against their national peers.

Higher education is a market. Schools operate within that market. They need governing and ledger-sheet flexibility. And the General Assembly needs to recognize that.