The National Governors Association and the National Association of State Budget Officers just released the latest Fiscal Survey of States, and the news is not good. The first paragraph of the report is:
States are currently facing one of the worst, if not the worst, fiscal periods since the Great Depression. Fiscal conditions significantly deteriorated for states during fiscal 2009, with the trend expected to continue through fiscal 2010 and even into 2011 and 2012.
Ouch. This means that state budget cuts will continue to have a big impact on students. 33 states are cutting higher education budgets in 2009, and this number is only slightly better–30– in 2010. Here is a table of states cutting higher ed budgets that I compiled from information in the report:
| 2009 | 2010 | |
| NEWENGLAND | ||
| Connecticut | X | X |
| Maine | X | X |
| Massachusetts | ||
| New Hampshire | ||
| RhodeIsland | X | X |
| Vermont | X | |
| MID-ATLANTIC | ||
| Delaware | X | |
| Maryland | X | X |
| New Jersey | X | X |
| New York | X | X |
| Pennsylvania | X | X |
| GREATLAKES | ||
| Illinois | ||
| Indiana | X | X |
| Michigan | X | |
| Ohio | X | |
| Wisconsin | X | X |
| PLAINS | ||
| Iowa | X | X |
| Kansas | X | X |
| Minnesota | X | X |
| Missouri | ||
| Nebraska | ||
| North Dakota | ||
| South Dakota | ||
| SOUTHEAST | ||
| Alabama | X | |
| Arkansas | X | |
| Florida | X | |
| Georgia | X | X |
| Kentucky | X | X |
| Louisiana | X | X |
| Mississippi | X | |
| NorthCarolina | X | X |
| SouthCarolina | X | X |
| Tennessee | ||
| Virginia | X | X |
| West Virginia | X | |
| SOUTHWEST | ||
| Arizona | X | X |
| New Mexico | X | X |
| Oklahoma | X | |
| Texas | ||
| ROCKYMOUNTAIN | ||
| Colorado | X | X |
| Idaho | ||
| Montana | ||
| Utah | X | |
| Wyoming | ||
| FARWEST | ||
| Alaska | X | |
| California | X | X |
| Hawaii | X | X |
| Nevada | X | |
| Oregon | X | X |
| Washington | X | X |
| TERRITORIES | ||
| PuertoRico |
While many state legislators claim that they are fundamentally against increasing taxes even in the wake of huge budget shortfalls, they seem to have no problem essentially taxing the hell out of higher education. Not only is it not sustainable to balance state budgets on the backs of students, but the negative effects of this lack of investment in higher education will harm economic development and innovation for years to come.