As New Yorkers rang in the New Year, Albany\u2019s budgeteers were developing a fiscal proposal for Governor Hochul. As directed by the state Constitution, the governor must unveil her budget plan within a few weeks and with it her policy priorities for the upcoming legislative session.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAffordability\u201d will be the buzzword of the session and the big-ticket items, like spending on health care and education, will dominate the budget debate. The impact of the federal budget put together by President Trump and the Republican-majority Congress will also impact budget decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For example, how does the federal budget impact higher education? A recent opinion piece<\/a> jointly authored by New York State Comptroller DiNapoli and the head of the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities (CICU) highlighted key issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In their commentary, they wrote that the \u201cOne Big Beautiful Bill Act\u201d represented the most significant overhaul of federal student lending in decades<\/em>. They opined that \u201cthe new law sharply restricts access to higher education based on wealth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n They concluded, \u201cThe consequences go far beyond college campuses. When students can\u2019t afford to attend college, entire communities feel the loss\u201d and \u201cThe financial effects will be immediate: reductions in student and visitor spending, lower revenues for local businesses, and thousands of campus and spillover jobs lost.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n They were quite right to look at the economic losses from a weakened higher education system, beyond the obvious impacts on college students themselves. They are also correct that the Trump Administration and its allies in Congress have enacted measures that will harm colleges and universities in New York and the communities where they are located.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet federal harms are just the latest<\/em> hits to higher education. Over the past decades, state<\/em> policies have undermined both public and private institutions. The biggest impacts have been on private colleges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, state policymakers have hammered public support for private colleges found in the Unrestricted Aid to Independent Colleges and Universities (known as \u201cBundy Aid\u201d). Bundy Aid<\/a> directs financial support to independent colleges. The program was established in 1968 with the goal of providing an answer to the question \u201chow 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.”<\/em> 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.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Once a vital component of independent colleges\u2019 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<\/a> to under $20 million. If New York had merely kept pace with inflation, the amount of Bundy Aid would be around $260 million \u2013 not less than $20 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The result? Not surprisingly, many colleges \u2013 usually small ones \u2013 have seen their finances become damaged or worse. According<\/a> to New York education officials, over the last 18 years, New York has lost seventeen<\/em> independent colleges, universities, and other degree-granting institutions. Ten<\/em> of those seventeen shut their doors in only the last few years, throwing their students into educational uncertainty and potentially, entire communities into economic insecurity. One example<\/a> was the closure of the College of St. Rose<\/a> in Albany, N.Y. Another more recent<\/a> controversy<\/a> surrounding the financial stability of Siena College in the Albany suburbs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Those campuses are, unfortunately, not alone when it comes to financial concerns. In a recent review<\/a> of colleges conducted by Forbes, nineteen of New York\u2019s 72 colleges and universities (26%) scored poor financial grades (C- or D).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Why should we care?<\/p>\n\n\n\n