Total state spending for higher education showed a marked improvement, increasing nearly 6 percent between the 2013 and 2014 fiscal years, according to the results of an annual survey. Beneath the numbers, however, lies a more complex story showing the slow and uneven recovery of state budgets.
“The overall results of this year’s survey, though positive, mask a much more varied picture,” says a report on the survey, which was compiled by researchers at Illinois State University and the State Higher Education Executive Officers.
“These variations are driven not only by the differing histories and structures of state higher-education systems, but also by the differing impacts of the last recession on the economies of the states,” the researchers concluded.
The overall increase in spending is the first in four years, and a bright spot compared with the 0.4-percent decline from the previous year and a 7.5-percent decrease two years ago.
Among the 40 states that gave more money to higher education for the current fiscal year, the increases ranged from 0.8 percent in Hawaii to more than 27 percent in New Hampshire.
Despite the improvements, higher education is still feeling the fiscal bruises from the most recent economic downturn.
The jump in spending is driven partly by large increases in three of the nation’s most-populous states: California, Florida, and Illinois. After subtracting those amounts, state spending on higher education increased by a more-modest 3.6 percent for the current fiscal year. Much of the 14.5-percent increase in higher education spending in Illinois was directed to the university system’s pension fund, the report said, and is “not available to be used for educational purposes.”
Numbers Still Down
Even with many increases, overall appropriations for higher education are more than 4 percent below the amount states were spending at the beginning of the recession, and well below that percentage in many states. New Hampshire, for example, has allocated more than 20 percent less for higher education this year than it did in the 2009 fiscal year.
Louisiana has cut higher-education spending the most since 2009, with a decrease of more than 34 percent. Arizona is a close second, with cuts of more than a third to higher education over the same time.
Ten states also cut money for higher education from 2013 to 2014, ranging from a decline of 0.6 percent in South Carolina to a decrease of more than 8 percent in Wyoming.
The survey, commonly called “Grapevine,” arrives as lawmakers in most states are beginning to formulate their budgets for the 2015 fiscal year, which begins for most on July 1. And the mixed results have already set the tone for the coming debates, with higher-education lobbyists setting low expectations for big increases in appropriations.
Any additional money is likely to come with strings attached in the form of performance benchmarks, such as improvements to graduation rates, say many experts in state higher-education policy.
For example, Gov. Jerry Brown of California, a Democrat, has proposed a 4-percent increase in money for higher education for the next fiscal year, the second installment of a four-year plan to improve the status of the state’s three college systems. In return, the governor expects the public colleges to freeze tuition and explore ways, using technology, to make degrees more affordable.
