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Paying for Colorado’s public higher education system, the stepchild of the state budget in recent years, is becoming the focus of increasing discussion at the Statehouse.
State colleges and universities have been hurt the most by Colorado’s interlocking spending limits and requirements. Other major state functions have earmarked sources of revenue or federal requirements that at least partially shield them from budget squeezes, but higher education has seen its share of state funding shrink – and families have seen their tuition bills rise.
The situation has brightened a bit for higher ed. Colleges received a 7.5 percent funding increase in the current state budget, and Gov. Rill Ritter has proposed an 8 percent hike in the next budget. (No other major state function has been tagged for such increases.)
But the higher education system has been trying to take a longer-term view and has been working with a system called NCHEMS that compares spending levels at various colleges with similar ones elsewhere in the nation. The initial review found Colorado $840 million a year behind its peers. Higher education Director David Skaggs told lawmakers recently that the gap has closed to $750 million.
There had been hope that a new college funding allocation system would be ready for the legislature to consider this session, but it looks like state colleges and universities will have to make do with the current funding system in the upcoming fiscal year and yet again wait for a more finely tuned funding system tailored to individual campus needs and missions.
The Colorado Commission on Higher Education on Feb. 1 voted unanimously to approve Skaggs’ recommendation that colleges receive an across-the-board 7.7 percent funding increase in the 2008-09 fiscal year. State colleges and universities haven’t been able to agree on exactly how increased revenue would be allocated among individual institutions and types of institutions.
The issue came up Wednesday when Skaggs appeared before the Senate Education Committee. Chair Sen. Sue Windels, D-Jefferson, asked, “Is there any way you can go back … and be able to do that [agree on a new system] this year?”
“Never say never,” Skaggs replied, but his comments made it clear that it’s not likely. He explained that some college presidents aren’t sure the current NCHEMS numbers are appropriate to use.
Windels asked if all colleges are on board with the 7.7 percent plan. Skaggs said many support it, a few don’t like it and few others are reticent, but “There is a general recognition … that no institution will be advantaged by having a disagreement about this before the General Assembly.”
However, there is a bill pending that would ‘advantage’ CSU-Pueblo and the Community College System with extra funding in the 2008-09 fiscal year. Senate Bill 08-085, which for the moment has a bipartisan group of 39 cosponsors, would give CSU-Pueblo an extra $3.1 million next fiscal year. Community colleges would get a bump of $16.3 million. (Read the fiscal note here.)
The bill is being pushed by the community college system, which feels it needs a boost because it hasn't been able to raise tuition as much as four-year schools have, in order to preserve the open-access mission of the two-year colleges. CSU officials make a similar argument about CSU-Pueblo, which serves a high percentage of lower-income students.
The case is made this way by CSU President Larry Penley and community college system President Nancy McCallin: "This bill simply provides the same type of assistance to the community colleges and CSU-Pueblo that has already been granted to Adams State, Mesa State, Western tate and Fort Lewis College. The Colorado Commission on Higher Education has in ecent years given these campuses combined appropriations totaling $9.65 million o help them remain financially viable and prevent excessive tuition increases that could not be shouldered by most of the students they serve."
The bill would provide CSU-Pueblo with $3.1 million to CSU. (The university received $15.2 million from the general fund this fiscal year. It's total budget from all sources is $32.9 million.)
The measure would give $16.3 million to state community colleges, whose general fund support this years is about $142 million.
(Sen. Abel Tabia, D-Pueblo, prime sponsor of the bill, told EdNews on Feb. 12 that when the bill comes up in the Senate Appropriations Committee on Feb. 15, he will suggest to committee members that the bill either be turned into a referendum for voters that would use gambling revenue, or that the bill be amended to tap mineral severance tax revenues. Tapia said he doesn't intend to propose general fund dollars be used.)
Skaggs discussed the bill obliquely in Senate Education on Wednesday, but it seemed clear he’s not comfortable with it.
The department’s position is that any new money should be shared equally across the system, he said. “Everybody should be treated equitably.”
If SB 08-085 passes, Skaggs said, “I truly am very troubled about what that would so to the sense of community” in higher education.
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