I originally went to this American Academy of Arts and Sciences report due to a sensational headline “11 States spend more on Corrections than Higher Education.”
After reading a bit though, I am more concerned about this: “Between 2008 and 2013, states cut appropriation support per fte student in the median public research university by more than 26 percent (overall, support per fte student at the median public institution was cut by more than 20 percent).” Still, that is only one alarming quote among many possibilities.
The quality of public higher education may not survive the 21st century, or even my younger’s application process.
The crime wave that peaked in the early 1990s, and the “tough on crime”[1] sentencing laws that were enacted in reaction to the resulting fear of crime, had a long term effect of increasing prison populations and hence spending on corrections. No surprise that corrections is consuming more of the state budget money, crowding out other things like higher education.
[1] But not necessarily efficient in terms of severity-weighted crimes prevented per dollar spent.
Madison, there are serious budget shortfalls that affect libraries, supplies, structural upkeep, salaries, technology, etc. The effects are very obvious on some campuses. Yes, some publics increase tuition, which shut out many students, but some are not allowed to raise tuition without state approval. They have other ways of balancing the books.
One of the strategies is to admit full-pay international students. Many public research universities, the group hardest hit by cuts, are 20% international. This changes the character of public education in many subtle and not so subtle ways. I once loved seeing how international my campus had become until I realized the internationals were taking the place of local students. Another strategy is to hire part-timers, lecturers, and clinical faculty, all of whom are cheaper than traditional faculty. Although sometimes these are very good teachers, other times they are just temporaries, not accessible when students need letters of recommendation, academic advising, or personal attention in general.
I do worry about the survival of quality public universities. Unless they have accumulated a grand endowment (Michigan), most cannot compete with the better privates, when once they could.
^^^ The UC’s have been hit hard and are coping by doing just that. Enrollment at UCB and UCLA has increased to around 30% OOS students up from around 10% 5 years ago. State funding to UCB per student is about 1/2 of what it was 10 years ago, when adjusted for inflation. The UC’s collected a half a billion dollars in OOS tuition fees in 2013 to compensate for the drop in state funding. Meanwhile, highly qualified in-state students who would have been easily admitted to the top UC’s 5 years ago are being rejected. I’m not sure what the answer is as the outlook for State funding to schools is bleak.
I look at the instructional faculty FT/PT/GradStudents ratios of schools…I think it is in general a good indicator of where a school is putting its money, and, as mentioned above, whether the faculty are there to support the students. It varies A LOT (even between state schools). Yes, sometimes PT faculty are “industry” folks, who can add a great perspective; but they are not always the best teachers. For undergrad I tend to feel that a larger percentage of supported FT faculty is preferable.
State schools today spend as much or more than they ever did.
They just have a different mix of funding. Less money from the state, more money from the Feds (directly or indirectly), more money from students – hopefully OOS or internationals who pay more.
A good argument can be made that the increased dollars coming from the Feds is what enabled the states to cut back their portion.
Politically, the states wouldn’t have been able to dial back if it meant the schools would shutter and all the employees would be fired. But there’s been relatively little hue and cry as the states have withdrawn their money. Because that money was easily replaced from other sources.
mamalion: Thanks for this thread. I think it is probably already too late to save them. I’m resigned. The baby boomers have so much to answer for… I just add this to the list.
I just try not to think about it too much because it is so depressing.
Well look at Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, who stated UW-Madison doesn’t need to be one of the world’s great university, but just an OK university, good enough for the citizens of the state. His justification for his attempt to cut funding.
@northwesty
I’d argue that state schools are in fact investing much more on “luxury goods” like top quality dorms, recreational and sports facilities, and so on than they ever did in the past.
The baby boomers get blamed for everything. Give it a rest. The state of California pay lots of benefits to it’s employees and hence the cost rise. Californian used to pay about $4-7k per year for tuition back in 2004-2007 time frame. Now it’s double for no reason.
I know that the residence halls in the UW system are self supporting- they are NOT state supported. Any upgrades are paid for the student cliental that chooses them over private housing.
We moved from Wisconsin in recent years and I can’t say more about the current politicians or I’ll be banned for political statements.
Blame the other generation- for all of the better things in your life alh. I doubt you would like a campus circa the early '70’s- pre internet and so much more.
I graduated from a state flagship in 78, where several generations of my family had attended. I had access to a fantastic education for an unbelievably low tuition. These days it is a much diminished and much more expensive university. That state used to have a priority of supporting this school. Now they are cutting the budget every year. Revenues are not being made up from other sources. Many faculty positions have been eliminated. Soon whole departments will be eliminated. This seems to me the point of the exercise. It will become a vo tech school and I’m sure my grandparents are rolling over in their graves. There is no longer access to excellent university education in that state. And my generation allowed that to happen.
yeah - I feel pretty strongly about this. But I didn’t hang around and try to stop it. I just watched it unfolding. My generation which attended that school, graduated without loans, and had excellent careers is allowing this school to be destroyed. I don’t really think that is hyperbole.
I have nothing to do with how the public schools in California was run. If anything the people in California elected one bad governor who raised the retirement package for state public employees. And the market collapsed. They are still recovering for that decision. I blame on the union employees.
@DrGoogle, there is a reason: in real terms, CA is pumping less money in to the UC’s now than in 2005 (and pay a far smaller percentage of the UC’s overall budget).
DrGoogle, I wish you would read the report and think about the scale of this cultural change. Nationally public institutions of higher education are being defunded. Maybe, maybe, in California pensions contribute, but in other states, Illinois comes to mind, the pensions are not funded. The issue is system with huge consequences going forward.
I wish I could think of some effective frame for response–national pride, fear of economic decline–but since there has been no response to the 40 school shootings this year, I do see how the slow dwindles of U.S. education will get a response.
California also had greatly increased prison spending, due to the crime wave that peaked in the early 1990s and the resulting reaction like the three strikes law promoted by the prison guards’ union, who talks tough on crime to Rs and shows union cards to Ds.