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State Must Reverse Failure to Keep Pace with College Costs

Darryl G. Greer, Executive Director/CEO

Daily Journal

December 14, 2006

Making higher education more affordable is chief among the concerns addressed in a report of the U.S. Commission on the Future of Higher Education.  A great many of the report's suggestions make good sense, but they need to be understood in a local and historical context.

Back in the 1970s, the state of New Jersey paid the vast majority of educational costs at state colleges.  Tuition was nominal.  By the early 1980s, the state decided it would make sense to require parents and students to bear a fixed share of the costs.  The vision was that if students could be a more significant funding partner, state colleges could grow and diversify.

The state Department of Higher Education settled on a 70-percent state, 30-percent student, tuition and fees system.  Under this model, student tuition and fees would only grow incrementally in proportion to the state's ability to add more dollars.

In the early 1990s, the state was starting to face budget difficulties and could not sustain its 70 percent.  As educational costs rose, tuition had to be increased; the state failed to match increased spending, and more often than not it failed to fulfill ever-increasing obligations for employee salaries negotiated by the state.

The trend continued and by fiscal year 2005, the share of costs borne by state and student had become a roughly 50/50 proposition.

As of the 2006 and 2007 fiscal years, students now pay about 55 cents on the educational dollar and the state pays 45 cents.  This comes at a time when enrollments and demand are at record highs, and New Jersey shows signs of slippage in the competition with other states for knowledge-based jobs.

In effect, the state is gradually reneging on its responsibility to help provide higher education.  New Jersey's inability to invest is far out of step with the rest of the nation.

For documentation, one need look no further than a 2006 report for NJ Policy Perspective by Anastasia Mann and Mary Forsberg called "Flunking Out: New Jersey's Support for Higher Education Falls Short."  The report cites a steady drop in support for higher education.  It is time for New Jersey and colleges and universities to work together more closely.  Here's what needs to be done: