Tuition will rise and perks will continue to vanish at local public colleges and universities walloped by state budget cuts, which are far from over.
The cuts have come as enrollments have reached record highs, bolstered by affordable tuition compared with private schools and a push by school systems to create “college-bound” students — some ready, some not.
The extent of further cuts this spring and next year will begin to emerge this month when Virginia and Maryland lawmakers tackle massive budget shortfalls as their legislatures convene. Lawmakers’ eyes will be on 2012, too, when federal stimulus funds run out.
In his proposed two-year budget, Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine recommended a jaw-dropping 26 percent cut to public higher education beginning in fiscal 2012.
Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley is expected to release his fiscal 2011 budget by midmonth, which will try to close next year’s $2 billion budget gap and likely will include more cuts to the current budget.
Tuition increases are likely to hit everywhere from the University of Virginia to Montgomery College, though amounts have not been determined. Even O’Malley’s highly touted three-year-old tuition freeze at the University of Maryland “was never meant to last forever,” spokesman Shaun Adamec said.
In Virginia, where in-state tuition and fees range from about $13,000 at Norfolk State University to more than $19,000 at the College of William and Mary, three schools took the rare step of increasing tuition midyear. Students at the University of Mary Washington, Christopher Newport University, and William and Mary will pay between $100 and $300 more for their spring semester.
“Tuition is always going to keep going up,” said Brad Wolverton, a senior editor at the Chronicle of Higher Education. “If anything, the cutbacks would indicate that a lot of [colleges and universities] will become more tuition-dependent.”
As student costs rise, colleges are cutting the non-essentials — from support staff to gardening budgets.
At Montgomery College, a hiring freeze on all but faculty has meant science labs previously staffed with three employees might be down to one, said Marshall Moore, a senior vice president at the rapidly expanding community college.
At George Mason University, average class size is up to 28 from 26, and the flower budget has been cut in half, Provost Peter Stearns said.
“Normally in the springtime I’m told we have a lovely campus. It might not be quite as lovely this year,” Stearns said.
Record enrollments have compounded the pain. In Maryland, public colleges saw 22 percent growth in students between 1999 and 2007 to nearly 270,000 students, according to the Southern Regional Education Board. Virginia saw 19 percent growth to more than 370,000. The portion of college students attending a public school has hovered around 80 percent in both states throughout the decade.
State funding has grown with the student increase. Between 1998 and 2009, Maryland tax funds for higher education grew by nearly 75 percent to more than $1.6 billion last year. Virginia saw 46 percent growth to nearly $1.9 billion, according to the board.
Some say that level of growth has proved unsustainable, even irresponsible.
“There seems to be an obsession with getting people into college,” when up to 50 percent don’t graduate in four years, and those who do often find college skills useless in the job market, said Richard Vedder, director of Ohio University’s Center for College Affordability and Productivity.
“I’m not against higher education — it’s done wonderful things. But it’s like anything else in economics — it’s subject to the law of diminishing returns,” Vedder said.
Stearns said the problem was not too many students, but too many colleges neglecting to give students a meaningful degree.
“Reducing the percentage of the relevant population being educated at the university level — that’s discussable, but that’s clearly not what the public wants when you look at enrollments,” Stearns said. “You don’t keep pace in a knowledge economy by cutting back on higher education.”
