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For the better part of two years, Colorado’s higher education leaders have been trying to come up with a budget master plan that will, over several years, revive the financial health of state colleges and universities.
Direct state support for higher education was severely cut in the lean budget years after 2001, and higher ed leaders, Gov. Bill Ritter and legislators have been working to at least partially rebuild college finances. State colleges and universities got an overall 7.5 percent increase for 2007-08 and a similar hike for the 2008-09 budget year, which kicked off July 1.
The Department of Higher Education and college presidents have been working on a long-term plan to bring Colorado schools closer to spending levels at similar colleges in the other states. (Insiders call that process "NCHEMS," after the acronym for National Center for Higher Education Management Systems, source of the data for the comparisons.)
Overall, Colorado lags peer institutions by about $750 million a year, but some individual schools lag more than others. Research institutions are at about 64 percent of their peers spend, four-year colleges are at 58 percent and community colleges are at 69 percent, according to the first NCHEMS study released in May 2007.
Using the NCHEMS numbers, the higher education system had hoped last year to give the legislature a proposed new funding scheme that would allocate money based on individual college missions, how far behind they lagged and what tuition levels would be appropriate for different kinds of students.
But, the higher ed community couldn't reach agreement and gave no comprehensive plan to lawmakers, who cobbled together a 2008-09 budget that provided a modest across-the-board increase to all colleges and some extra money to schools that are farthest behind comparable schools.
Higher ed leaders went back to the drawing board to reach agreement on a master plan that can be presented to the 2009 legislature.
In June, the Colorado Commission on Higher Education agreed on one piece of the plan: That all colleges should get a standard, across-the-board inflation increase every year.
Two other pieces were before the board Thursday during its meeting at Aims Community College in Greeley. For the sake of brevity, we won’t get too technical here, but one recommendation involves how in-state students should be weighted in budget calculations, and the other concerns whether grants, donations and the like should figure in. (Education wonks in the crowd can read the documents here and here.)
But, members decided to delay votes until their September meeting, saying they need more time to study the complex issue. Bud Peterson, chancellor of the University of Colorado at Boulder, also urged delay, saying the issue needs more study because the current recommendation for weighting in-state students could have adverse effects for campuses like Boulder, CSU and the School of Mines, which have significant numbers of non-resident students. (Like 45 percent at Boulder.)
The delay may or may not throw a small wrench into the overall state budget process. Departments have an Aug. 1 deadline to deliver their 2009-10 requests to the Office of State Planning and Budgeting, which in turn has to deliver the governor’s proposed budget to the Joint Budget Committee by Nov. 1.
Learn more:
Original NCHEMS study
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