State plans to spend more on higher ed
Associated Press
COLUMBUS — Ohio is embarking on an aggressive 10-year plan to increase state spending on higher education, cut tuition costs and increase enrollment at public colleges, something that has national experts both skeptical and excited.
“No state has put it all together, so it will be interesting to see what Ohio can do,” said Joni Finney,
vice president of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education in San Jose, Calif.
The plan, announced at the end of March by Ohio Board of Regents Chancellor Eric Fingerhut, seeks to increase enrollment from 472,700 to 702,700 by 2017 in the University System of Ohio, which consists of 13 public university campuses, one medical college, 24 regional branch campuses and 23 community colleges.
It also calls for state spending per student to reach the national average by 2017. In 2006 Ohio ranked 39th in the nation with state spending per student about $3,800, while the national average was about $4,900.
For Ohio to reach that national average at current enrollment levels, it would have to spend about $420 million more. To maintain the national average while also boosting enrollment by nearly one-half will require an even greater state commitment between now and 2017.
“There are sort of competing goals here,” said Tom Parker, interim president of the Institute for Higher Education Policy in Washington. He added that increasing enrollment in all states is imperative because of the demands of a more competitive global economy.
The current average tuition and fee cost per year to attend one of Ohio’s main university campuses is $8,520. In 2006, the average tuition in Ohio had grown to be 50 percent more expensive than the national average. The 10-year-plan calls for it to be among the lowest in the nation by 2017.
Partially because state spending has been low and tuition high, the state is in the bottom tier in the percentage of residents who have a bachelor’s degree. About a quarter of Ohio residents held a bachelor’s degree in 2006, which ranked 37th in the nation.
To give Ohio a chance of success in reaching its goals, Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland and state lawmakers will have to consistently bump up taxpayer funding amid competing priorities such as Medicaid, K-12 education, tax cuts and infrastructure.
They began in 2007 with a two-year tuition freeze, coupled with an additional $254 million in state spending for higher education. The state is also looking to the colleges and universities to use their dollars more efficiently.
“This has to be committed to over a series of budgets,” said Republican House Speaker Jon Husted, who believes there will be serious discussion next year about extending the tuition freeze. If Ohio is successful in consistently raising state support, it would be going against a national trend of what Parker calls privatizing public education — placing more of a burden on students to pay for their schooling.
Ohio had been a symbol of the privatization trend. In the decade before the tuition freeze, tuition increased by an average 9 percent a year. State spending lagged during that time period, in which the economy was largely stronger than it is now.
“The governor and General Assembly have made it absolutely clear that higher education is and will remain a high priority,” Fingerhut said. “We’ve also been clear that that doesn’t mean it can increase in a straight line every year of course because the state economy will dictate the resources available.”
Public institutions in some states have made up for an increasing lack of state support and increased in-state enrollment numbers by placing a larger burden on out-of-state students with higher tuition, Parker said. Ohio, however, isn’t going this route because it hopes to attract talent from other states, Fingerhut said.
That goal was part of the reason the state announced last week that it was going to treat all military veterans, no matter where they live, as “honorary Ohioans” and enable them to pay in-state tuition. But attracting more students places an additional burden on the system.
“Every time you add something new to the plate that’s just going to mean you are going to have to commit more state resources to fund that strategy,” Husted said.
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Filed by Associated Press July 17th, 2008 in Local and State. Popularity: 2% |
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