Bloomberg Business: State spending on college budgets has yet to rebound


Bloomberg Business is reporting that, in 48 U.S. states, government spending on each college student is still below where it was before the recession that ended almost six years ago. Now, at least seven governors — in Alaska, Arizona, Connecticut, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, West Virginia and Wisconsin — are reducing or proposing new reductions in higher education spending. A chart accompanying the article shows that Arizona (48 percent) and Louisiana (43 percent) led the way in cutting state spending per college student most dramatically from fiscal 2008 to fiscal 2014, adjusted for inflation. (Only two states increased per capita public spending on higher ed — Alaska by 3 percent, and North Dakota by a whopping 38 percent.) Wisconsin’s reduction since 2008, prior to the current proposal, ranks at the mid-to-lower-end of the spectrum, at 22 percent.