Community colleges have traditionally been the most public of public higher education, receiving a much higher proportion of their revenue from state and local taxes than four-year institutions do, and typically serving a wider range of students—in terms of age, income, and ethnicity—at lower prices.
But community colleges, like many public universities before them, are experiencing a shift in their public identity. In some states, students’ tuition dollars have surpassed state aid, now accounting for more than half of community-college budgets. Passing that threshold threatens to undermine the institutions’ educational and economic missions.
This academic year, for the first time, Iowa’s community colleges received more than half of their combined operating budgets from tuition. But students are not necessarily getting more for their money. Less than a third of the colleges’ budgets now come from the state, and state budget cuts have led to fewer faculty members in some programs, along with reduced campus services.
The shift in Iowa, and elsewhere, has occurred gradually over the past several decades. State support for Iowa’s community colleges has been eroding since 1980, when tuition made up about a quarter of their budgets, and the state kicked in about half. Since that time, enrollment has grown nearly three times faster than state appropriations, while the contribution from property taxes has remained essentially flat.
Tuition first surpassed the amount of state appropriations in the national recession in 2002, becoming the largest source of revenue for Iowa’s community colleges: 43 percent of their budget.
The colleges are beginning to be strained by the increasing demand, says Steven Ovel, executive director of governmental relations at Kirkwood Community College. “We have too many waiting lists and high-demand programs.”
Questions about who should foot the bill for college go beyond philosophical issues, such as whether a college education should be viewed as mostly a private or a public good. The primary source of a college’s budget can change its educational mission, forcing campus leaders to focus more on the bottom line than on the needs of the community. With less and less state money, higher-education experts warn, two-year colleges may be compelled to limit access to expensive programs, including those that provide training for much-needed workers in technological and health-care fields.
“What will happen is that the programs will be capped and will not be expanded, despite the growing demand for these high-wage, high-demand jobs,” says Stephen G. Katsinas, a professor of higher-education administration and director of the Education Policy Center at the University of Alabama.
‘Profoundly Disturbing’
Tuition and state appropriations have long been on opposite trajectories, especially at flagship institutions like the University of Colorado, the University of Michigan, and the University of Virginia, all campuses where state money makes up less than a quarter of the general operating budget.
Tuition revenue surpassed state support at Colorado in the 1991-92 academic year and now is more than four times as much. At Michigan, tuition revenue accounted for more than half the general fund in 1993-94. Tuition is more than 30 percent of the academic budget at Virginia, and nearly three times as much as state aid.
The University of California system, which has long boasted one of the lowest costs for in-state students, has warned that proposed budget cuts for the next fiscal year would cause tuition revenue to surpass the amount of state money the system receives.
“The crossing of this threshold transcends mere symbolism and should be profoundly disturbing to all Californians,” Mark G. Yudof, president of the university, wrote in a response to Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed $500-million cut for the system.
By one measure, California would be joining the rest of the nation. On average, students at public research universities paid about 51 percent of the costs of their education in 2008, according to the Delta Project on Postsecondary Education Costs, Productivity, and Accountability. By comparison, students at community colleges paid, on average, about 31 percent.
Although states, in general, pay a larger share of the educational costs at community colleges, those institutions generally receive far less state money than the sums flowing to public four-year colleges. Only about one-fifth of all state appropriations for higher education go to two-year colleges, according to the American Association of Community Colleges.
And two-year colleges face greater challenges than four-year institutions do. Nearly 40 percent of all undergraduates are enrolled in two-year colleges, including a large proportion who come from low-income families and minority groups, and many who have less academic preparation than do students admitted to four-year colleges.
A Leading Edge
Iowa’s 15 community-college districts are among the first to cross the budgetary line, but the factors that have led them to rely more on tuition than on any other source of money are common in higher education. Enrollments have grown while state aid has failed to keep pace in states across the country, suggesting that Iowa is on the leading edge of a trend.
From 1980 to 2010, enrollment at Iowa’s two-year colleges nearly tripled, from 38,000 to more than 100,000. But state appropriations increased by just 30 percent, adjusted for inflation. Revenue from local property taxes that support the colleges declined by 13 percent over the same period, according to the Iowa Association of Community College Trustees.
As a result, tuition this year accounts for 54 percent of the community-college system’s general-fund revenue, while state support has fallen to less than 30 percent.
The two biggest effects of the declining state support are that the colleges must increase tuition “on a population that doesn’t have a lot of money,” and must increase the faculty workload to handle the increased enrollment, says Ronda Kirkegaard, a trustee at Northeast Iowa Community College.
Patricia A. Keir, chancellor of the Eastern Iowa Community College District, which enrolls about 60,000 students on campuses in three counties, says the recent economic downturn has simply accelerated some of the pressures that were already at work. Enrollment increased by nearly 20 percent this fall, she says, while state appropriations fell by 17 percent.
After offering incentives for early retirements, the district eliminated 28 full-time positions, about half of which were faculty jobs. One of the colleges no longer has any full-time instructors teaching mathematics.
Tuition rose more than 5 percent to cover part of the lost state money, but if tuition were to increase by the amount needed to replace all of the lost money from the state, the programs would be too expensive for many students, Ms. Keir says. Instead, the colleges may have to resort to adding fees to their costliest programs, such as welding and nursing.
At Kirkwood, which enrolls more than 18,000 students in five counties, enrollment grew by more than 18 percent from 2009 to 2010, says Mick Starcevich, the president. On his campus, revenue from tuition surpassed state money in 1998. Less than 30 percent of the college’s budget now comes from the state, while nearly two-thirds is covered by tuition, he says.
Although students are paying for a larger share of the college’s budget, in some cases they are getting fewer services. The decrease in state money combined with the increase in enrollment has put “extreme pressure” on support services, such as registration, financial-aid counseling, and academic advising, Mr. Starcevich says. The college added a few support workers, he says, but not enough “to put a dent” in what was needed for the number of new students.
State Rep. Greg Forristall, a Republican who is a member of the Iowa House of Representatives’ education committee, sees no evidence that the state has shirked its responsibility to its colleges. “There’s no lack of attention,” he says. “Every state has had budget problems, and Iowa is no exception.”
And so far, he argues, the fiscal difficulties have not had a noticeable impact on the quality of education offered. “The community colleges,” he says, “have done an excellent job of maintaining, even with a lack of state support.”
He adds that the coming budget session will require lawmakers to make difficult choices.
Iowa is expected to end this budget year with a $327-million surplus, but it still faces a projected $263-million revenue shortfall, about 6 percent of the state’s budget for the coming fiscal year, which begins in July. Gov. Terry E. Branstad, a Republican, says he wants to use the surplus money for tax cuts rather than pay off the shortfall or add money to state programs.
South Carolina Squeeze
The downward trajectory of state aid in South Carolina is among the steepest in the nation. In 2003, state appropriations made up 60 percent of community-college budgets, compared with about 40 percent from tuition. But by the end of the 2009 fiscal year, tuition dollars accounted for 55 percent of two-year-college budgets, and state support had plummeted.
This year the state spent 11 percent less on higher education than it did in 2006, while enrollment has increased as much as 30 percent at some technical colleges. Over all, tuition now accounts for 62 percent of the technical colleges’ revenues, and far more on some campuses. As state dollars have dwindled, tuition has increased, on average, by 17 percent since 2006.
With more budget cuts likely in the coming fiscal year, the president of Midlands Technical College, Marshall (Sonny) White Jr., has even planned for how his campus would operate without any state appropriations at all. The college receives just 10 percent of its operating money from state appropriations, down from 40 percent in 2000.
Although a complete cutoff of state money seems unlikely, Mr. White says, the worst-case scenario is no longer out of the question: “We had been told by some legislators, ... ‘You ought to be prepared.’”
He began two years ago, by scaling back costs. He eliminated courses with small enrollments and stopped offering courses on Friday afternoons to save money on utilities and maintenance staff. He required full-time faculty members to teach one more course per semester, which made him unpopular but prevented layoffs and furloughs, he says.
The state’s technical-college system took broader actions to mitigate the effects of the cuts, allowing campuses to charge variable tuition—$140 to $221 per credit hour—and charging full-time students more for anything above 12 credit hours per semester. Such steps allow the colleges to charge more for programs that require costlier equipment and technology and for popular courses.
Similar to Iowa, the political climate in South Carolina does not appear conducive to an increase in state appropriations for higher education. The state’s new governor, Nikki R. Haley, a Republican popular with some Tea Party activists, has pledged not to raise taxes.
With the state facing a budget shortfall of nearly $900-million in the coming fiscal year, the two-year colleges are planning for cuts of up to 25 percent, says Darrel W. Staat, president of the state’s technical-college system.
Some state legislators say the technical colleges provide a good return for the money the state spends on them. But they acknowledge that campuses need money for more construction from the state, which hasn’t issued bonds in several years because of the former governor’s opposition to increasing the state’s debt level.
“My hope is that when our revenue stream picks up, we would start correcting some of the budget cuts,” says State Sen. Larry A. Martin, a Republican who is a member of the chamber’s education committee.
But Mr. White isn’t counting on good news. Community colleges across the country, he says, should be preparing for the worst, as Midlands is. “Other states will be faced with this going forward. I don’t believe you can stick your head in the sand and think this funding is coming back.”
