State Higher Education Funding During COVID-19: Lessons From Prior Recessions and Implications for Equity

Abstract

States provide substantial support for higher education through appropriations to public colleges and universities that can be used to maintain relatively low tuition levels and funds for financial aid. Higher education often receives disproportionate cuts during recessionary periods, and it faces potentially unprecedented reductions in coming years amid a pandemic that has left some states with revenue shortfalls. How states approach higher education cuts has the potential to exacerbate existing inequities among racially minoritized and low-income students and historically underfunded institution types. In this study, we document trends in higher education funding over time and use latent profile analysis to identify distinct approaches states have taken to higher education funding. We then examine the trajectories of higher education funding within each approach over time, particularly during prior recessions. We conclude by discussing the implications of each approach for equity, particularly in light of states’ early responses to the current economic downturn.

“Not simply the act of enrolling”: Defining servingness at Hispanic‐serving community colleges

“…Examples of this are seen outside of HSI research in the work of Rosinger et al. (2022), which discussed how the state funding shortfall can exacerbate existing inequities for minoritized populations on college campuses. This finding confirms the multidimensional framework's suggestion that external influences directly impact leaders within HSIs when they consider how to better serve their students.…”

Investigating the efficacy of peer tutoring to support Latinx students in Hispanic serving community colleges

“…The first, financial point of concern is that community college support services are either inadequately funded or ill-equipped to serve Latinx students' specific needs (Benítez & DeAro, 2004). Much has been written about the consistent declines in state funding for higher education over the past two decades (e.g., Rosinger et al, 2022;Smith et al, 2023), and it reasonably follows that this continued defunding has had the greatest impact on community colleges (Lanford, 2021a). While research universities have the capacity to supplement impactful initiatives related to student learning through sizeable research grants, alumni donations, or endowment resources stockpiled over multiple decades, community college revenue streams are generally limited to student tuition and annual state appropriations, thus constraining their ability to hire educational specialists and develop programs that could support their evolving student populations.…”

Финансовая Поддержка Национальных Систем Высшего Образования В Период Пандемии COVID-19: Обзор Опыта Европейских Стран

“…Вместе с тем в некоторых докладах отмечается, что опыт финансового кризиса 2008 г. показывает, что пандемия будет иметь отсроченный эффект на объемы государственного финансирования [Estermann et al, 2020a;Rosinger et al, 2022].…”

“…Аналогичный сценарий эксперты ожидают в текущей ситуации: существует значительный риск того, что объемы государственного финансирования будут уменьшаться в ближайшие два-четыре года, когда реализуются долгосрочные последствия экономического кризиса. При этом высшее образование подвержено бо́льшим рискам по сравнению, например, с дошкольным или школьным образованием [Rosinger et al, 2022]. Сокращение государственного финансирования уже можно наблюдать в США: в 2021 г. по сравнению с предыдущим годом государственное финансирование сократилось на 1,7 млрд долларов, то есть на 1,8 % [Kelchen, Ritter, Webber, 2021].…”