Dive Brief:
- A survey of 50 state directors of community colleges shows that higher education has become less of a state funding priority this year, dropping behind unfunded state pensions and healthcare cost increases.
- In 31 states, state funding for community college operating budgets failed to increase at the predicted 3% rate of the Higher Education Price Index.
- Rural community colleges will face the highest levels of fiscal strain in history in the 2014-15 fiscal year, according to the survey.
Dive Insight:
The survey by the Education Policy Center at the University of Alabama found that the average predicted tuition increases for the 2014-15 school year were the lowest since the survey began in 2003. But of the 33 respondents who answered questions about state funding of student grant aid, 26 said their state funding wasn’t keeping up with inflation. Respondents from 11 states — California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia’s University System of Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Washington — reported that their public universities have implemented enrollment caps.