How should we fund PUBLIC higher education?

To kick this blog off right, I am going to dive in with a post to get you thinking.

I think I've had this post ruminating in my head for months now. As I mentioned in my first post, sometimes I'll be posting about politics. In this case, I'm posting about an issue at the intersection of education and politics--higher education funding. I'm sure this is on many of your minds right now, particularly as state legislatures head back into session and new state governments take office this month.

As a brief disclaimer, this comes from someone who attended private, Catholic schools from 7th grade through the end of my Master's degree. My current job at Green River Community College is the first time I've been back in public school full-time since I finished sixth grade (over a decade ago, probably more than 15 years ago). I'm not sure what that has to do with my feelings on the matter, but it seems relevant to share.

Toward the end of Fall Quarter, our public information officer at Green River posted a news item to our faculty and staff news feed that resides on our college intranet. In it, he ruminated on some of the potential changes coming for the college as we look to the future, especially facing another legislative budget session where we expect to see major cuts in higher education funding. In this story, he mentioned a trend that has popped up in more than one news story on higher education funding around the nation, a trend that has been progressing for probably 40-50 years now--the shift in philosophy around state-funded higher education. In particular, he highlighted a change from "state-supported" education to "state-assisted" education.

Now, we all know that the percentage of public college and university budgets that come directly from the state has been rapidly shrinking, particularly through the 1980's to today, but something about seeing this much closer to home really struck a chord with me. What does "public education" mean when the public stops funding that system of education? Who holds the responsibility for providing public higher education when the public is not a majority stakeholder in those institutions?

A disturbing trend which has been picking up over the past few years of the Great Recession has been:

• A decrease in state funding of state college and university general fund budgets
• An increase in tuition at alarming rates for both resident and nonresident students
• A huge increase in the number of students enrolling in public higher education
• The subsequent increase in the amount of federal financial aid needed to pay for more students at higher tuition rates
• An increase in the need for private donations and nonprofit grant funding to keep essential programs running

I find this disturbing because I fear what this means with regard to who controls the quality and outcomes of that higher education. When providing this service is a mandate of the state, institutions are held accountable to the greater good of the public and are freer to make decisions based on what the surrounding community's needs are. When providing this service becomes subject to what will and will not get funded, priorities shift and private interests take precedence over public good. And I'm not saying state colleges and universities have always been idyllic mini-utopias; rather, I'm saying that ensuring the public has the greatest investment in our public colleges and universities will keep private interests (especially in our research universities) in check.

My director at work has always said no student should ever have to pay or borrow to attend community college, that community college should be a commodity open to any member of that community who wishes to attend. Yet we've even seen with the increases in tuition over these past couple years more students relying on financial aid to fund their education, and more students needing to borrow a little bit of money on top of their Pell grants. I borrowed quite a bit of money to finance my education, but that was to be expected choosing Jesuit Catholic universities for both my undergraduate and graduate degrees. Community colleges should be open to all--and the ability to pay for one's education should not become the threshold for whether you can attend or not.

The Seattle Times reported on Monday that a state task force charged with examining higher education funding issues in Washington State suggested allowing state colleges and universities the ability to set their own tuition rates--rather than the state legislature--to make ends meet. This would be matched with higher state and federal financial aid money to ensure students could attend. While this is a good short-term strategy to make sure colleges and universities do not have to cut much more in order to stay operational through the end of this economic downturn, I can't help but fear that this philosophy of higher education funding won't stay in place into the future. Perhaps there are benefits to be reaped in the end that I cannot divine at this point. But I think public higher education is a concept worth preserving.

Bryce