State Should Raise Taxes, Not Tuition

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities released a report recently with the self-concluding title thatRecent Deep State Higher Education Cuts May Harm Students and the Economy for Years to Come.

It argues against spending cuts. States should raise taxes instead, it says, and use the extra revenue to keep funding for public universities the same. College degrees increase a student’s chances of finding work, figures show. Spending less on students means that fewer students receive diplomas and in turn less work. 

These cuts, although severe, are not a new development. The sequester has only accelerated a steady thirty-year decline in funding. In 1987, public universities received 3.3 times more funding from states and localities than from students. Now, they receive 1.1 times as much.