Dramatic Declines in Higher Education Appropriations: State Conditions for Budget Punctuations

Public colleges and universities depend heavily on state appropriations and legislatures must decide how much to fund higher education. This study applies punctuated equilibrium theory to characterize the distribution of annual changes in higher education appropriations and defines the threshold for a dramatic budget cut. Using data for the 50 states from years 1980 to 2009, this study investigates the relationship between such unique policy events and state characteristics using a Cox proportional hazards model. Results show that economic and political conditions are most predicative of dramatic budget cuts. High unemployment rates increase the probability of cuts while rapid increases in tax revenue and wider income inequality are protective against cuts. Unified Republican and unified Democratic governments are both more likely to cut spending compared to a divided government. Sensitivity analyses of state characteristics associated with small budget cuts demonstrates that large cuts are indeed unique events catalyzed by different conditions.     

Ethnic Heterogeneity,Group Affinity,and State Higher Education Spending

A rich interdisciplinary literature exists exploring the determinants of state higher education funding policies. However, that work has collectively ignored an important finding from political economy literature: namely, that citizens’ preferences regarding public spending are strongly influenced by the state’s ethnic and racial context. Drawing on a unique panel of state-level data covering the years 1982–2009, we find that states demarcated by increased racial and ethnic diversity and eroding white majorities do tend to spend less on subsidies to public higher education, resulting in decreased state appropriations as well as more tepid support for financial aid programs. Critically, however, we find that the negative effects of increased ethnic and racial fractionalization can be mitigated—and in some circumstances, fully offset—by a high degree of positive social interaction between ethnic and racial groups. These results are discussed within the pragmatic context of continued state emphasis on degree attainment as a mechanism to foster economic growth as well as broader considerations about equality and social justice.     

Does Merit-Based Aid “Crowd Out” Need-Based Aid?

The advent of merit-based state financial aid programs has had several first order effects, such as changes in enrollment. However, these programs may also have second order effects, such as declining state support for need-based state financial aid programs. I hypothesize that the advent of merit-based state financial aid may be an example of Baumgartner and Jones’ punctuated equilibria. Results from estimation of models for dynamic panel data suggest instead that need-based aid has changed only incrementally in the states, without an observable effect of merit-based aid.     

Issues in higher education budgeting policy

This review of the papers by Bowman, Millot and Schiefelbein; and Jones, Thompson and Zumeta; relates the implications of these papers to policy issues in budgetary practice and appropriations for higher education in the United States. Recent developments related to reform of the budgeting and appropriations processes in several states are discussed in terms of the congruence of perceived economic goals for higher education with the apparent public policy goals of the states.     

An Examination of the Influence of Decreases in State Appropriations on Online Enrollment at Public Universities

State support for public higher education has been a primary concern for decades. Online education has been identified previously as an alternative revenue source that can offer financial relief to colleges and universities. This study uses IPEDS data and a fixed effects regression approach to examine whether public universities increase their reliance on online education in response to decreases in state appropriations. Consistent with resource dependence theory, we found a negative relationship between state appropriations and online enrollment at public 4-year institutions. Our findings indicate that public universities, particularly public doctoral institutions, appear to be responding to declines in state appropriations by engaging in revenue diversification and increasing their commitment to online education.     

州立奖学金对美国高等教育入学机会的影响

从20世纪80年代以来,美国大学生资助政策发生了变化,州政府资助的主要方式从基于需要的助学金转移到基于优秀的奖学金,州奖学金项目获得极大关注。据此,美国很多州设立了本州的奖学金项目,这给学生的高等教育入学机会造成了极大的消极影响。同时,也给我国提供了一些借鉴和启示。     

Community College Mission: Re(S)ources Make a Difference

Community colleges are unique among higher education institutions in their potential access to local appropriations as well as state funding. A total of 26 states reported to the Education Commission of the States in 2001 that community colleges in their states received some share of local funding. Using data for 781 public community colleges, we explored the implications of resource dependency theory for mission differentiation between dual-funded and state-funded colleges. Significant differences were observed in their student bodies, programming, expenditures, and outcomes. These differences have implications for the increasing dependence on state funding for community colleges and the roles these institutions play.     

Market-Based Higher Education: Does Colorado’s Voucher Model Improve Higher Education Access and Efficiency?

In 2004, Colorado introduced the nation’s first voucher model for financing public higher education. With state appropriations now allocated to students, rather than institutions, state officials expect this model to create cost efficiencies while also expanding college access. Using difference-in-difference regression analysis, we find limited evidence that these outcomes occurred within the 4-year sector; however, the policy increased cost efficiencies among community college and reduced college access for some underrepresented groups. The paper discusses the challenges of applying market-based reforms to public higher education.     

Federal policies,state responses,and community college outcomes: Testing an augmented Bennett hypothesis

We estimate the impact of increases in Federal student aid and higher education funding, such as the recently proposed American Graduation Initiative (AGI), on the outcomes of community colleges, including enrollments, list and average tuitions, and educational quality. We develop a reduced form model of state-level education policy in which state policy makers, who have objectives that differ from those of Federal policy makers, respond to changes in Federal policies. Our empirical specification treats state and institutional variables as endogenous; we interpret the coefficients as measuring the responses of state and institution officials to changes in Federal policies. We simulate the effects of AGI and find little evidence that states recapture Federal education resources. AGI would have a significant effect on educational quality but a limited effect on enrollments. An equivalent increase in Federal student aid would have greater impact on access and enrollments, but decrease educational quality.     

Valuing the benefits of the education provided by public universities: A case study of Minnesota

This study estimates the value of the private and public benefits that accrue to Minnesota residents from state government subsidies to higher education. In 2005, the University of Minnesota and the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system received $832 million from Minnesota's state government to support educational programs. These subsidies allow these institutions to offer lower tuition rates, increasing the number of Minnesotans with bachelor and graduate degrees. We calculate that removing these subsidies would eventually lead to 14,000 fewer graduate degree holders in Minnesota, and reduce those with bachelor's degrees or “some college” by 42,000. The annual economic cost of these subsidies is about $326 million; this is less than annual state appropriations because most of those appropriations are income transfers from taxpayers to students, not an economic cost. We estimate that the annual value of the benefits of these subsidies is between $531 and $786 million ($381 and $570 million) when a 3% (5%) discount rate is used. We also discuss some of the income distribution consequences.     

针对微观数据的新国家助学金政策LOGIT模型实证分析

新国家助学金政策于2007年秋季正式实施。实证研究显示,尽管总体而言家庭经济困难学生更容易获得国家助学金,但学生在校学业表现好以及在校活动能力强均能提高学生获得国家助学金的概率。政府对国家助学金政策目标并未做明确清晰的界定,政府在如何向高校分配国家助学金资源以及高校在校内如何分配名额方面并未做到公开透明,现行高校国家助学金评定掺杂过多定性和主观因素。     

Contemporary approaches to learning science: technologically-mediated practical work

This paper describes the current state of science education in Arab states and anticipates some of the challenges faced by those states as they reform their science education. After discussing problems of illiteracy, access and quality we provide contextual information about the structure of the educational systems and describe recent efforts to reform them. We focus on issues pertaining to science curriculum and textbooks, language, religion, student learning in science, science teacher education and science education research and summarise the challenges and opportunities for research faced in each area. We conclude the paper by proposing a set of policy and research recommendations that could aid in the development of lasting solutions for recurring problems.     

教育所形成的人力资本的计量及其对中国经济增长贡献的实证研究

本文首先从评述计量教育所形成的人力资本的方法出发,指出采用生均教育经费法比较科学;其次通过建立我国经济增长的模型对影响我国经济增长的因素进行了实证分析;最后对实证分析的结论进行了比较和解释。     

Institutions of Higher Education and the Nationalist State

Significant changes in state economic priorities are likely to have a formative and fateful effect on institutions of higher education. Yet economic accounts cannot themselves explain changes in the economic priorities of nationalist states, in part because of the ideological character of such states. The nationalist state's influence on institutions of higher education is often indirect, involving the interactions of social and political actors who are themselves influenced by prevailing social ideologies. Social ideologies contribute to shifts in state economic priorities, and these changes can indirectly but significantly influence the trajectory of institutions of higher education. A longitudinal case study of a Canadian distanceeducation university demonstrates the means by which nationalist sentiment encouraged a shift in state economic priorities, which in turn created a welcoming social climate for a new university's consumerist model of education.     

The concept of public goods,the state,and higher education finance: a view from the BRICs

Because higher education serves both public and private interests, the way it is conceived and financed is contested politically, appearing in different forms in different societies. What is public and private in education is a political–social construct, subject to various political forces, primarily interpreted through the prism of the state. Mediated through the state, this construct can change over time as the economic and social context of higher education changes. In this paper, we analyze through the state’s financing of higher education how it changes as a public/private good and the forces that impinge on states to influence such changes. To illustrate our arguments, we discuss trends in higher education financing in the BRIC countries—Brazil, Russia, India, and China. We show that in addition to increased privatization of higher education financing, BRIC states are increasingly differentiating the financing of elite and non-elite institutions.     

Human Movement Forms as Meaning-Structures: Prolegomenon

Economic downturns are sudden and sharp reminders that public universities must shift their reliance on state appropriations to other sources of revenue. The recent economic crisis is another reminder that many sources of revenue must be sought for the continued vitality of public higher education in the United States. The ways and means for producing needed revenue encompass freeing up funds internally through a variety of approaches and creating new revenue streams. Prosperity depends on the creativity of our collective approach to the notion of revenue.     

Creating Adaptable Universities

Shifting demographics, rising costs of operations, a changing competitive landscape, reductions in state appropriations, pressures for accountability, and a widespread economic decline characterize the environment in which today’s colleges and universities operate. This article examines some of the current responses to these challenges and outlines opportunities for advancing the mission of higher education in the 21st century. The topics covered include student centeredness, interdisciplinary research, access and affordability, technology, globalizing our universities, and service.     

State Spending on Higher Education Capital Outlays

This paper explores the role that state spending on higher education capital outlays plays in state budgets by considering the functional form of the relationship between state spending on higher education capital outlays and four types of state expenditures. Three possible functional forms are tested: a linear model, a quadratic model, and the balance wheel model. The balance wheel model posits that in good economic times, higher education is funded at a higher rate than other state budget categories. In bad economic times, higher education is often one of the first state budget categories to be cut and is cut more deeply than other state budget categories due, in part, to its ability to tap into alternative revenue streams. We find that capital outlays do not conform to the balance wheel model. Instead they appear to have a quadratic relationship with other state budget categories. We discuss the policy implications of these findings for both higher education leaders and state policymakers.     

A Note on Measuring the Economic Impact of Institutions of Higher Education

Universities and other institutions of higher education are frequently asked to justify, in economic terms, the allocation of state monies toward their programs. These institutions have often responded by conducting economic impact studies. The traditional approach to economic impact views increases in expenditures by a university as a means to create new jobs within the state and to expand the state's economic base. Recent studies have employed a new approach that also accounts for increases in the state's skill base as part of the economic impact. Although the skill-base approach yields favorable results for higher education, recent applications of the technique fail to consider fully the effects of migration on a university's economic impact and, thus, substantially overestimate the impact. Researchers are well advised to avoid the skill-base approach and to utilize the traditional economic-base approach, which produces more reliable estimates of local economic impact. Moreover, states and universities are cautioned not to place the debate over education financing exclusively in the realm of economic impact, since there are other reasons to provide publicly funded higher education.     

美国大学面对财政危机的人事对策：兼职教授与教授终身制

在州政府减少对高等教育拨款的情况下美国大学采取了开源和截流两种方式来缓解财政困境。本文以风险社会理论为框架,应用定量研究方法探讨了美国大学在应对经济困境和质量之间的矛盾时采用的教师选拔制度。研究发现,美国公立大学在过去的十年中（1999年至2008年）经历了学费、杂费和食宿费的迅速增长期,而这些增长很大程度上是以美国在校大学生债台高筑为代价的,过度开源使上大学难成为社会关注的焦点,公众和政府的压力迫使大学把焦点部分地转移到截流。美国大学财政截流的基本方式是在不严重影响质量的前提下,选用兼职教师代替全职教师。各大学特别是研究型大学,使用了相对严格的终身职提拔制和年终教师评审制以保障教师的质量,进而保障大学的质量。在风险社会中,美国大学所面临的困境是全球大学正在或即将面临的共同课题。希望美国大学人事截流又着力保障质量的实践为中国高等教育人事制度改革提供一种可能的借鉴。

Abstract：

When states reduce appropriations to high education,American universities take two methods to cope with the fiscal crisis：increasing revenue（including tuition,fee）and reducing spending on hiring faculty.By using Theory of Risk Society and quantitative methods,this paper explores how American universities deal with contradictions between fiscal difficulties and quality of universities.The research found that under the condition of ensuring basic quality,universities often employ part time rather than full time faculty.Relatively higher standards of tenure system and faculty annual review further ensure quality of teachers.The problems that American universities face are the global problem,which other parts of the world are encountering now or will encounter in the future in a risk society.The author expects that the experiences of American universities in this regard will provide one of the lessons for China＇s reform in human resource management in higher education.