Another report reveals more evidence of the long shadow the Great Recession has cast over public higher education.
The State Higher Education Executive Officers, known as Sheeo, has released its annual report on higher-education finances in all 50 states, showing a moderate overall increase in state and local appropriations for higher education, as well as on a per-student basis, for the third year in a row.
But beneath the national figures are wide variations in both increases and cuts in state money for public colleges, and evidence that many states have taken up what looks like a permanent residence at the bottom of the list.
Some Good News
For the 2015 fiscal year, the figures show that 40 states increased spending, raising the per-student spending to almost $7,000 on average, according to the report. That represents a 5.2-percent increase from the previous year. It’s also the largest number of states to increase per-student spending in the past quarter century.
“Paying for higher education is a real struggle for many American families, so it is good news that many states are reinvesting in higher education,” said Peter A. Blake, director of the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia, in a news release. Mr. Blake is also chairman of the executive committee for the association of executive officers.
The growth in spending is the third consecutive increase in per-student appropriations, which have also been bolstered by small declines in enrollment. The number of full-time-equivalent students fell a little more than 1 percent between the 2014 and 2015 fiscal years, the report found, and has dropped about 2 percent since 2010.
Over all, enrollment is still nearly 9 percent higher than it was before the recession, and with the growth in enrollment, the number of students earning degrees and certificates has also surged, the report said.
The increase in degree completions shows that colleges are responding to the new demands for accountability, said George Pernsteiner, president of the higher-education officers’ group.
“In the past decade, as college enrollment has grown by 15 percent, the number of students who have completed degrees and certificates has increased by more than 30 percent,” Mr. Pernsteiner said in a prepared statement.
Still Bad News
While the average amount of state spending has grown, it is still 15 percent less, per student, than before the economic downturn. Just five states are now spending more per student than they were in 2008, the report says.
Nationally, tuition grew just 2.5 percent on average in 2015, the report said, and now makes up a smaller share of per-student revenues, 46.5 percent, than it did two years ago. But that’s still 11 percentage points higher, over all, than it was before the nation’s economy stumbled.
In 22 states, tuition still accounts for more than half of the per-student revenues at public colleges, the report said.
The continuing reliance on tuition represents “a true challenge not just to the students and their families but to the states that will rely on their college graduates to help sustain civic and economic vitality,” said Bob Donley, executive director for Iowa’s Board of Regents, who was quoted in a news release from the higher-ed officers’ group.
Eight years after the beginning of the recession, its long-term consequences for higher-education finances are just now being realized.
And some states appear to be falling into a hole that will be difficult to escape. Louisiana, for example, spent nearly $1,300 per student above the national average in 2008, according to a separate analysis by Sheeo’s researchers. By the 2015 fiscal year, however, the state’s per-student spending was more than $1,400 below than the national average.
Alabama, Florida, and Nevada saw similar reversals from above-average state appropriations, according to the report’s researchers.
Eric Kelderman writes about money and accountability in higher education, including such areas as state policy, accreditation, and legal affairs. You can find him on Twitter @etkeld, or email him at eric.kelderman@chronicle.com.
