States Put Squeeze on Public Universities
Public universities and colleges are expecting midyear budget cuts, again. Pick a state, and more likely than not, its sour economy is affecting higher education. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities wrote in December that 44 states are facing budget shortfalls this year (the ones that aren't? Alaska, Montana, North Dakota, Texas, West Virginia, and Wyoming), and 24 states have already proposed college/university cuts.
Snapshots from student papers:
Florida State's FS View and Florida Flambeau reports $61 million (!!) in midyear cuts.
Recently Florida's Senate for Higher Education Appropriations committee voted to cut the budget for higher education by almost $200 million in order to help appease the overall state's budget gap of $2.4 billion.
"Our state has had 20 straight months of lower than expected collections and has therefore reduced budgets over this period of time," [Provost Lawrence] Abele said. "Up to today, our budget has been reduced a total of about $26.3 million. We expect that the current special session will reduce it another $13.1 million and that the regular session will have to reduce our budget another $22 million for a total of about $61 million dollars. That is a huge sum."
"Huge" could be an understatement here.
The Iowa State Daily reports $7.2 million in cuts for Iowa State.
The university will cut an additional $4.3 million, or 1.5 percent, from its budget after an announcement made in December by Gov. Chet Culver.
When added to the earlier mid-year budget cut announcement made in November, the total cuts in the budget will equal $7.2 million, said President Gregory Geoffroy.
The state of Washington is looking to increase tuition and decrease spending to save more than $500 million among its schools, the University of Washington's Daily writes.
To help stabilize the budget, [Gov. Chris Gregoire] proposed a 13 percent state funding cut for public, four-year colleges and universities and a 6 percent reduction in state funding for technical and community colleges. The combined state savings from the two cuts represent an estimated $343.9 million.
The governor's budget proposal also includes a 7 percent tuition increase for undergraduates at public, four-year colleges, the maximum amount allowed by Washington law. This would cost UW undergraduates an average of $453 per year.
A 7 percent increase in public, four-year college and university tuition, combined with a proposed 5 percent tuition raise for community and technical colleges, would increase the state's budget by an estimated $163 million.
The Louisiana State University system faces $29 million in cuts. The bad news? That's still a lot of money. The good news? It's about half of what was expected, and it's not as bad as some other SEC schools.
University of South Carolina system = $52 million in cuts
University System of Georgia = $29.7 million budget reduction in October
University of Alabama system = $15.8 million
Tags: colleges | recession | state budgets
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fierce competition for student aid
The cutbacks underscore what Student Aid Financial Services, Inc., the oldest and largest student aid advisor, reported - anxiety and even desperation in the early days of the student aid season. It reported calls for advice and help preparing the federal aid application, known as the FAFSA, up more than 40% in the first 5 days of the year compared with the same time last year. Given the college and state shortfalls for aid, families and students must zero in on applying for aid now as it is largely a first-come, first-served world. The 2009-2010 FAFSA asks 137 tax and asset questions so be sure if you're going to an independent preparer to make sure they have as a goal to maximize your eligibility and to double check for errors. The Dept of ED lets you file the FAFSA online for free but it says millions don't apply because of the "red tape." Another 2 million or so FAFSA applications last year were rejected for errors (the form is complex) and errors cost time and could make a student lose out on aid. So investing a few dollars in professional help or setting aside time (2-3 hours) to really study the Dept of ED's instructions and form is very important.
Student Financial Aid Services reported that it's seeing many more upper income families apply for aid because their home equity is too low to tap into because of the recession.
Don't let the competition for student aid stop you from applying. Nearly every student is eligible for some form of financial aid, including low-interest federal Stafford and/or parent PLUS loans, regardless of income or circumstances, provided a student:
• is a U.S. citizen, a U.S. national, or an eligible non-citizen;
• has a valid Social Security Number;
• has a high school diploma, GED, or equivalent;
• is registered with the U.S. Selective Service (if a male ages 18 to 25);
• completes a FAFSA promising to use any federal aid for educational purposes;
• does not owe refunds on any federal student grants;
• is not in default on any student loans; and
• has not been found guilty of the sale or possession of illegal drugs during a period when he/she received federal student aid.
Aren't we a trip
This is a dance that we (America) do about ever 5-7 years to higher education (especially public) when a recession comes along, then after, we dig ourselves out of the mess, we have put higher education in over the next 5-7, we do it again. The crazy thing is as we come out of the recession and start funding higher education again, we start moaning about how America is falling behind other countries (even some third world countries)--who even without a third of our resources have continued to fund their higher education systems, thus, making steady and ONGOING progress. You can't have it both ways, either you are committed to quality education or you keep it right in the middle of the funding circus. Very simple but for America, very sad.
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