Which states are facing the toughest budget cuts for higher education?

[Simfish]

So it seems that some states will see more massive budget cuts than others - cuts that may make admissions more competitive and that may decrease the quality of the graduate school experience. Since stimulus funds are ending, this will only make the budget cuts hurt even more.

Does anyone have more information about which states are seeing hard budget cuts, especially those that are relevant for graduate education?

In particular, I'm concerned about Wisconsin and Pennsylvania (Penn State).

As a reference, I do go to a school (Washington) that saw budget cuts more severe than those at other schools. Its quality has not declined and its competitiveness did not increase yet. It was able to increase tuition to the point that the cuts only took 10% out of the university's budget, so the university could afford to make the "easy cuts". However, the stimulus has shielded a lot of the impact from universities, and further budget cuts (which will happen) may be more problematic.

For some more information, I posted a similar thread a year ago at http://www.physicsgre.com/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=3302.

 

[Simfish]

Looks like Penn State might be hit hard:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110310/ap_on_re_us/us_drilling_vs_diplomas;_ylt=AqibFk544dZ6kZjz4p.Qf81H2ocA;_ylu=X3oDMTNkcmlodGpyBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTEwMzEwL3VzX2RyaWxsaW5nX3ZzX2RpcGxvbWFzBGNjb2RlA21wX2VjXzhfMTAEY3BvcwMxMARwb3MDMTAEc2VjA3luX3RvcF9zdG9yaWVzBHNsawNwYWdvdnNkZWVwaGk-

But Penn State has never faced a cut as severe as the one Corbett proposed, said Spanier, calling it the most dramatic appropriation cut in the history of U.S. higher education.

This year the school received $330 million from the state and had requested $360 million next year; Corbett proposed $165 million. That figure stunned university officials, Spanier said.

==

Much harder than Wisconsin:

http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/117193223.html

 

[Andy Resnick]

Kaisch (Ohio) will present his budget request soon, and it is expected the legislature will approve it as-is. We don't know what the cuts will be, but my institution is using a working figure of a 20% cut in state support (which works out to $12M). While Ohio's budget is biannual, this cut will occur in year 1, and effectively re-baseline the annual budget in future years.

CSU has a budget task force that has been meeting weekly for the past few months and has developed a few scenarios to deal with the cut (also, different Ohio state universities may be cut by different amounts), and since the budget has not been released there's no 'official' statement, but the working plan is for my college to be spared the worst of the cuts (we get a 3-5% cut) while other colleges get cut a lot more- and that's just academics; academic support and facilities are also getting deep cuts.

At the micro level, my Department is facing a $16k cut- something that we can handle, but it's not clear how that cut will get implemented. Personally, my goal is to get external funding to cover 1 or 2 graduate students. Of course, with the federal budget frozen, all of that is on hold.

 

[Vanadium 50]

This is part of the story. The other part is that university budgets are huge. Penn State has a $4B budget. You have to put the state budget in context. How the university will deal with what amounts to a 4% cut will vary from university to university.

 

[Andy Resnick]

This is part of the story. The other part is that university budgets are huge. Penn State has a $4B budget. You have to put the state budget in context. How the university will deal with what amounts to a 4% cut will vary from university to university.

I'm not sure what you mean (or even if this was directed at my comment). The Ohio budget deficit is somewhere between $8-$10B. Like the federal government, Kaisch has vowed not to raise taxes- he wants to cut taxes. Also like the federal government, some programs will get cut (proportionally) more than others. And finally, like the federal government, there has been a complete lack of any meaningful discussion about priorities.

 

[Vanadium 50]

The point is that even "state" universities no longer get the majority of their funding from the state. This dilutes (but of course does eliminate) the effect of state cuts.

 

[Andy Resnick]

The point is that even "state" universities no longer get the majority of their funding from the state. This dilutes (but of course does eliminate) the effect of state cuts.

Yes, that's true- a 20% cut in state support represents about 8% of our total budget. It's also why the legislative bills changing collective bargaining agreements in Wisconsin and Ohio are important- who allocates the cuts? Does the faculty have the right to help decide? Again, at my institution the faculty have been very involved, and as a result most of the cuts are not being made to academic programs.

 

[Andy Resnick]

Kaisch released the budget yesterday, and I tried deciphering the numbers. At first glance, it appears to be quite good news for higher education- the state subsidy is basically flat (2.7% increase). OTOH, certain specific programs (medical schools and clinical teaching programs) are uniformly cut 10%, some programs are zeroed out entirely (nothing here, tho), support for libraries, OhioLINK (journals) and the supercomputer network are cut 2.5%. The Third Frontier program (R&D) is fully funded as well.

Stay tuned...

 

[Andy Resnick]

Well this is odd- I was hoping it was a goofy rumor, but this is reported by multiple organizations:

Somewhere in the budget Kasich directs higher education to create 3-year undergraduate degree programs and modifies teaching loads.

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2011/03/higher_education_officials_bal.html

Its not at all clear to me why these items are in a *budget* bill. Clearly, the SB5 bill dealing with changes to collective bargaining has little to do with financial matters and more to do with control over the education system: who decides the educational requirements for a BA or BS degree?

To be fair, I haven't been able to find that specifically in the budget request. Very strange...