More higher education funding storm clouds
Every time I read about some troubling new development in the funding landscape for higher education, I think this must be the bottom.
And it has turned out that I’ve been wrong every time.
The latest installment comes from the California State University system, via the Los Angeles Times. The Cal State system is freezing the number of in-state residents who can enroll as students while expanding the number of those who will pay non-resident tuition.
The reasoning is all financial. Students who pay significantly higher non-resident tuition subsidize the California residents who pay lower rates. The system, according to the story, is facing a $750 million funding cut in 2011-12 and potentially a $250 million cut the next year.
The Cal State story is hardly unique, though it is more extreme than the situations in many other states due to California’s budget problems. What if this idea becomes the norm? What if a lot of state universities start boosting the number of out-of-state students they’ll take while limiting or even cutting back on the number of in-state kids who get in?
Well, a lot of in-state kids wouldn’t be able to attend their state universities so they would have to apply to community colleges, private institutions or to universities in other states where they’ll pay non-resident rates. That whole idea of state universities being the affordable backstop for higher education would begin to evaporate for a lot of kids.
Is it too much of a stretch to think it could be the beginning of the end of in-state tuition? Probably. At least I hope so. But nevertheless, it’s a disturbing turn of events.