Financial Self-Sufficiency and the Public University

Summer 2011 | Trusteeship

The reductions in state tax support for public universities that began around 1990 and continue today are progressively redefining relations between government and public higher education. The reasons for the drop in appropriations per student vary from state to state and include aging electorates, voter fervor for tax cuts, and mandated restrictions on public spending. Such trends, along with competing claims for tax support, have largely fragmented what was once a public consensus that education was the states' first obligation.
Read More (PDF)