It is often said that budgets are about priorities: There are unlimited demands but only limited available resources. What you fund is what you think is most important.
When it comes to those things you choose not to fund, it must be that budget makers are less interested in them.
In New York’s recently approved budget one of the most notable areas that did not receive adequate assistance was the state’s independent colleges.
Historically, two of the biggest programs that provided support for independent (a.k.a. private) colleges was the state’s Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) and Unrestricted Aid to Independent Colleges and Universities (known as “Bundy Aid”).
For decades, New York offered the neediest public college students assistance that covered full tuition through TAP at the State University of New York and the City University of New York. The program also offered an equal amount of assistance to students attending independent colleges.
However, starting in 2011, New York began to change TAP. During that year the maximum TAP award for the neediest college students was “frozen” as the state commenced raising public college tuition. The plan called on the public colleges to use their own resources to cover the difference between the maximum TAP award and the cost of public college tuition. However, in recent years the state has stepped in and covered the difference between TAP awards and public college tuition.
Students attending independent colleges and universities also are eligible for TAP and awards to those students were “frozen” too. Since TAP awards were frozen, those campuses also had to figure out ways to cover the financial assistance that would normally have come from the state’s TAP. But when it came to private colleges, the state never stepped in to change the situation.
Adding to that financial hit, New York State was cutting back its direct support of colleges in the independent sector as well.
Bundy Aid directs financial support to independent colleges. The program was established in 1968 with the goal of providing an answer to the question “how the State can help preserve the strength and vitality of our private and independent institutions of higher education and at the same time, keep them free.” In response, the state decided that “the moderate but real level of need calls for direct assistance from New York to private colleges and universities.”
Once a vital component of independent colleges’ finances, the program has been decimated by cuts over the past four decades. The peak state support occurred during the 1989-90 fiscal year, when nearly $114 million was appropriated. During the current fiscal year, that amount has been reduced to under $20 million. If New York had merely kept pace with inflation, the amount of Bundy Aid would be around $260 million – not less than $20 million.
During the budget battles this year, there was an effort to both increase the maximum TAP award to fully cover tuition in public colleges and to begin to restore funding to Bundy Aid.
Both failed. The final budget agreement kept the maximum TAP award at $5,665, well below tuition at the State University of New York ($7,070) and kept Bundy Aid below $20 million.
Obviously, state support of independent colleges has not been a budgetary priority.
The result? Not surprisingly, many colleges – usually small ones – have seen their finances become damaged or worse. According to New York education officials, over the last 18 years, New York has lost seventeen independent colleges, universities, and other degree-granting institutions. Ten of those seventeen shut their doors in only the last two years, throwing their students into educational uncertainty and potentially, entire communities into economic insecurity.
One recent example was the closure of the College of St. Rose in Albany, N.Y.
Last week, another financial warning was posted on a local independent college. Union College in Schenectady has fallen short in filling its freshman class for two years and is now pulling millions of dollars from its endowment to balance its budget. While there was no evidence of panic, it is an indication of a struggling sector. In a recent financial ranking of New York’s independent colleges, Union College had a positive grade, but well over a dozen more were listed as in financial trouble.
Why should we care?
The answer is that colleges not only educate the adult leaders of the future, but they are also dynamic “economic engines.” These economic engines create jobs that stimulate and anchor local economies. Independent colleges and universities in New York State contributed an estimated $97 billion to the state’s economy and supported more than 400,000 jobs. These institutions also provide cultural and educational resources to the larger community, contributing to the quality of life in the area.
We now know that New York’s elected leadership doesn’t consider the independent sector of higher education an important component of the budget. As independent campuses close and others struggle, New York’s decisions are costing jobs and economic activity. Here’s hoping next year’s budget reverses this not-so-benign neglect.