A new dynamic is emerging in many statehouses, where policy makers are debating not only how much money to appropriate for higher education but also what colleges should do to get that money.
That discussion may be a welcome change for public colleges, after the deep cuts of the recent economic downturn. With most legislatures having finished their 2014 sessions, next year’s state budgets are expected to increase, over all, for a fifth consecutive year, according to a report from the National Association of State Budget Officers. The predicted increase, less than 3 percent over all, is below historical standards for state spending, the association said in its annual survey of state-budget conditions.
While final numbers have not been tallied, proposed cuts to higher education were confined to just a handful of states, including Illinois, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Washington, and West Virginia, according to the association. Enacted budgets, it said, were likely to largely follow the early recommendations.
Policy makers have largely embraced the idea that an increase in college graduates will fuel a better economy for their states. But any increases in state appropriations to colleges are likely to come with lots of strings attached, including the expectation that higher education will somehow buffer the state from the next recession.
Less Cost
One way that elected officials are trying to get more students into college is to make it more affordable.
Tennessee, for example, plans to pay community-college tuition for two years for all high-school graduates. The measure was championed by Governor William E. Haslam, a Republican, and is paid for with state-lottery reserves.
A similar measure failed in Mississippi, and Oregon’s legislature has approved a study of such a plan.
Community colleges in Colorado got a boost from a new law allowing them to offer four-year degrees in career and technical education. California policy makers are considering a pilot measure allowing some two-year colleges to grant baccalaureate degrees.
States are also trying to increase the job skills of nontraditional students, especially military veterans, said Dustin Weeden, a higher-education-policy analyst for the National Conference of State Legislatures. Laws granting in-state tuition for all U.S. military veterans passed in Florida and Maine this year. Nearly half of all states have approved such measures.
Lawmakers in Florida and New Jersey approved in-state tuition for some children of undocumented residents, while Virginia’s attorney general approved such a policy after it was rejected by the legislature. At least 21 states have now adopted such policies, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures
Greater Expectations
In several states, the discussion of college affordability has taken on the tone of a negotiation, with lawmakers agreeing to increase appropriations for higher education if public colleges agree to freeze tuition. Such deals were struck in nine states in 2013, said Daniel J. Hurley, director of state relations and policy analysis at the American Association of State Colleges and Universities.
In California, Governor Jerry Brown, a Democrat, has reached that deal with public universities for three consecutive years. In Iowa, legislators approved a similar deal for the second year.
South Dakota legislators made a similar arrangement this year with the state’s six public universities. The University of Texas system, under pressure from Governor Rick Perry, a Republican, agreed to hold tuition steady, even though the Legislature was not in session this year.
Another popular policy option involves setting performance benchmarks for higher-education appropriations. Colorado and Missouri this year joined a growing number of states that award a portion of state money on the basis of outcomes such as graduation rates, although the specific measures have yet to be approved in Missouri.
In the past, money for performance benchmarks was usually given as a bonus to public colleges, Mr. Weeden said. Now, however, legislators are applying the outcomes to base appropriations, even if the result is a smaller sum. “No matter if appropriations change from year to- ear,” he said, “some portion of that money is tied to performance.”
