October 5, 2009, 7:02 am

When State Universities Lose State Support

By Nancy Folbre

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images A message advising students to walk out of classes was written in chalk on the University of California, Berkeley, campus on Sept. 24, 2009. Thousands of students and faculty staged a walkout and demonstration against proposed fee increases and service cuts at 10 state school campuses.

Nancy Folbre is an economics professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

The budget of the public higher education system of California has been slashed by over 20 percent, on top of previous cuts. Faculty and student protests kicked into place the first week of classes, reflecting enormous contention over the best way to respond.

What’s happening in California is both a harbinger of things to come in other states and an amplification of a national trend.

The percentage of total spending at state universities provided by state tax revenue has been sinking for more than 20 years. As Jim Duderstadt, former president of the University of Michigan put it, “We used to be state-supported, then state-assisted, and now we are state-located.”

Declining state support leads to higher sticker prices. Over all, tuition and fees paid by students and their families now account for about 36 percent of all educational revenue at public institutions in the United States, up from 24 percent in 1983.

The fiscal stimulus provided through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act helped protect public university funding this year — but next year will be another matter.

The state of most state budgets is grim, with large deficits looming.

The administration at my own university, the University of Massachusetts Amherst, has told faculty to get ready to fall off a cliff (I’m not sure what we’re supposed to do … buy hang gliders?).

About 74 percent of all American college students in degree-granting postsecondary institutions attend public schools. Students from low-income families are particularly likely to attend public institutions, which are more economically diverse than higher-priced privates.

With a teenage unemployment rate of 25.9 percent in September, more young people would like to head to college. But will they be able to afford it?

President Mark Yudof of the University of California recently defended tuition and fee increases of more than 32 percent over the next two years as the only viable short-run option for that system. Many other states, including my own, are likely to follow suit.

Some states are raising taxes and may devote increased revenue to protect public higher education.

Increased federal support is also an option. In a recent Washington Post article, the chancellor and vice chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley propose a 21st-century version of the Morrill Act, which first established public universities in this country.

A University of California faculty member, Christopher Newfield, also argued that the severe budget crisis might create a “teachable moment” for public higher education finance.

I hope he’s right. If states want to maintain public universities, they must be willing to pay for them.