NJ Public Colleges' Loss of $55M in Funding Will Hurt Opportunity and Affordability, Schools Say

 

Salvador Rizzo

Statehouse Bureau

July 1, 2011

 

The state's public colleges are speaking out after Gov. Chris Christie made deep cuts to higher education funding before signing his $29.7 billion budget Thursday.

 

Christie eliminated $55 million in college tuition grants, mostly for low-income students, cutting not only the additional spending Democrats had proposed but also funds from his own budget proposal in March.

 

"This spending plan, without a doubt, is another setback for college opportunity and affordability," said Darryl Greer, director of the New Jersey Association of State Colleges and Universities. 

 

Other casualties included many personnel reductions across the state colleges as well as law school programs at Newark, Camden and Seton Hall University that provide legal services for low-income offenders.

 

The cuts come with very bad timing, Greer said. The federal government is also debating whether to cut funding for low-income students.

 

Meanwhile, a higher education task force led by former Gov. Thomas H. Kean has been recommending more funding, not less, this year, since the state's colleges have lacked funding increases for years.

 

Colleges will also be forced to pay more for their employees' fringe health benefits.

 

Kean had recommended the state borrow money to increase funding, but Christie decided to cut appropriations instead, saying the state couldn't afford to pay more.

 

"Significant reductions in the cornerstone federal student aid program, Pell Grants, are currently being debated in Congress, even as the economy demands getting more low- and middle-income students into college," Greer said.