The recession that began in December 2007 had a major impact on almost everyone’s lives, but no one seemed to feel that impact more severely than college students. Due to declines in state funding, more and more colleges had to cut programs, raise tuition prices and decrease spending in other ways in order to make their budgets work each fiscal year. Almost every state in the country cut its support to higher education, but the New Hampshire state government made the largest cuts to its higher education system, according to a report recently released by The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
This report not only details just how much state governments cut their support by, but it also outlines the problems that lie ahead of the university systems across the country. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, which is based in Washington D.C., states in its report that it will take years to recover from the detrimental impact of these budget cuts. The state support for higher education will climb slowly throughout the course of the next few years, meaning that adequate funding is still a long ways off.
Throughout the recession, the state of New Hampshire cut its budget allocation for higher education in half. This means that the state is spending about $2,196 less per student than it was in 2008.
Universities have had to make up for that in other ways, often times forcing students to pay more almost every year in tuition. The authors of the reports note that the cuts had to be made because of the economic downturn. However, the report also notes that state legislators seemed to resort to cutting higher education funding before they took a look at other spending cuts that could be made. Authors of the report note that cuts could have been more evenly distributed across the board.
The impact of rising tuition prices is real — in fact, in New Hampshire alone, the cost of tuition at the public universities in the state has gone up by about 36.7 percent, according to Sea Coast Online. The average four-year university in New Hampshire has increased their tuition costs by about $3,909 since the recession began. Of course, students have had to find a way to manage these increases on top of the costs of their room and board and their textbooks.
In response to the report that was recently released, the state government of New Hampshire has stated that they are committed to restoring the funding that was cut from higher education institutions throughout the state. The governor recently released a budget proposal that significantly restores some of the cuts that were made, but those restorations are dependent on revenue from a casino for which plans have not yet been approved by the legislature.
At the same time, New Hampshire universities responded to the report claiming they were committed to keeping tuition costs down but reminded people that universities couldn’t keep those costs down on their own. Put simply, they need funding from the state to help them off-set the rising tuition costs for students. Both sides are hoping to work together to create a positive outcome for students.