Dive Brief:
- The Louisiana Board of Regents requested nearly double the funding for higher education in the 2016-17 school year, launching the next round of a fight for state investment.
- The Times-Picayune reports Louisiana's state colleges and universities have faced a larger cut in higher education funding since 2008 — more than $700 million — than any other system in the country.
- The $1.4 billion request dwarfs the $769 million the legislature scraped together for the state's higher education institutions during this budget cycle, and comes in the face of an expected $700 million shortfall to simply maintain services.
Dive Insight:
At the beginning of the last budget cycle, Louisiana was looking at some of the most Draconian cuts to higher education in the country. The legislature raised money for the system by increasing taxes and cutting business incentives. In Illinois, where another governor has suggested cutting higher education funding, the legislature is still deadlocked on a compromise, months behind schedule.
Colleges and universities are bearing some responsibility for the rising cost of tuition and student debt, with states being blamed for scaling back their investment in public schools. Most states are slowly increasing their funding but in next year's budget cycle there are likely to be more outliers.