The most unkindest cut of all

The Joint Budget Committee today voted unanimously to cut and additional $300 million from state colleges and universities. This would be on top of nearly $100 million cut earlier in the year.


If the legislature agrees with the recommendation, the budget for higher education will be cut in half. It's unlikely that the state could keep open all of the existing colleges and universities on that amount of money.


We've spent the last month scraping the state budget for things to cut and for ways to add revenue. We have not found a way to avoid this terrible decision.

Big Growth at CSU-Pueblo

CSU-Pueblo is going through a growth spurt that's both a consequence of and cause for cash-funded capitol construction.

Over the past few years, CSU-Pueblo had added a student recreation center, completely funded with student fees, and a stadium to bring the football team back on campus using money from private donors.

It's making the school more attractive and enrollment is up nearly 12% this year. The surge in students is overwhelming the dorms and the university is housing some freshmen in a nearby hotel. It's a temporary situation because the campus is adding student housing.

In the Fall of 09, Phase 1 of it's student housing expansion will open with 250 beds. Next Monday CSU will ask the JBC to OK Phases 2 & 3 of the housing project. They're both 202 projects, so JBC approval shouldn't be much more than a formality.

Thunderbowl Stadium
The Neta and Eddie DeRose Thunderbowl Stadium just hosted it's first college football game. The project cost $13.6 million.

Paying Off the Investment

Most students today graduate from college owing money on loans they used to pay for the education. As part of our JBC briefing on higher ed, we got these numbers on what students in Colorado owe on graduation day.

Higher Education Funding

State Contribution
We're adding $50 million to our budget for colleges and universities this year and another $20 million for financial aid. The money will help schools keep good faculty, maintain their labs, buildings and equipment and help hold down costs down for students. This year we're using a new way of distributing the money. About half of it goes to helping schools with the general increase in their costs; things like salaries, benefits and utilities. That means each schools General Fund revenue will go up by at least 2.2%

The rest of the money will help each college or university move closer to the state funding similar schools around the country get.

Tuition
Colorado's colleges and universities are still a bargain. They offer a top-notch education and low tuition. Here's an example. This chart compares the cost of going to CU-Boulder with the cost of going to comparable universities around the country:

The tuition data is from the CollegeBoard.

It's the same situation for nearly all of our higher ed institutions. Their tuition is low compared to their peers in other states.

But our low tuition still buys good quality. Here's how CU stacks up in the U.S. News rankings:

Rank	University
44	University of Texas -- Austin
75	Indiana University -- Bloomington
79	University of Colorado -- Boulder
85	University of Kansas
85	Iowa State University
91	University of Missouri -- Columbia
91	University of Nebraska -- Lincoln
96	University of Massachusetts -- Amherst
112	Florida State University

The JBC authorized resident undergraduate tuition increases of 9.5% for research universities, 7.5% for state colleges and 5.5% for community colleges. Those are caps. The schools don't have to increase tuition.

For the research universities, CU, CSU, Mines & UNC, tuition can't go up more than 5% for in-state students with financial need.

A substantial portion of the tuition increases will go toward financial aid, helping to offset the expense for many students.

Financial Aid
We're adding more than $10 million in financial aid aimed at the students who need it the most. It includes a general increase in need-based aid, restoring work-study funding to it's pre-budget crisis level and doubling the size of our pre-collegiate grant program. It's a big increase, but we have a long way to go before we catch up to where we used to be.

Need-Based Aid
The JBC approved a $7,270,600 increase in need-based grants. This money goes to both graduate and undergraduate students attending public and some private schools Colorado. To get the grants, students have to prove that they need the financial help. In 2006, nearly 29,000 students got grants; the average amount of the grants was just over $1,500.

Studies show that students who work part-time on campus do better in school than students who don't.

Institutional Aid
Most colleges and universities offer a substantial amount of financial aid to students using money from their own budgets. They have to put more than 2% of the money get get from tuition increases into financial aid.

Special Programs
Two specialized schools -- CU's medical school and CSU's veterinary school -- have been especially hard hit by the state's tight budgets. They never got much funding and the budget cuts pushed them to the bottom ranks of med and vet schools in the country. This year we're trying to help help them a bit.

CU Health Sciences Center
We're adding $1.5 million to the HSC to make up for the lack of GF support and help ensure that we're training enough doctors and nurses for Colorado.

College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences
CSU serves as the main veterinary program for most of the Rocky Mountain West. It's consistently a national leader in ved med and biosciences despite getting far less state support than similar programs in other states.


Want more information on our Higher Ed budget? Click here.