A staggering drop for community colleges

University Business, March, 2006 by Caryn Meyers Fliegler

EVERYONE KNOWS THAT STATE funding for community colleges has dropped in recent years. Now a graduate student working on his Ph.D. has laid out a picture of just how much two-year schools have lost.

For his dissertation, Billy Roessler, associate director of admissions and records for the Tarrant County College District (Texas), Compiled data on enrollment and revenue for community colleges in the United States. Mining IPEDS data gathered for the National Center for Education Statistics, and following a method of classification developed by Stephen Katsinas of The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Roessler found that urban, suburban, and rural schools experienced public funding decreases in a disproportionate manner.

Tuition and fees have risen by a consistent 3 to 4 percent across the board, Roessler found, but public funding dropped more for rural and urban colleges than it did for suburban ones.

Broken out by state instead of geographic classification, public funding drops seem even more jarring.

In California, the average share of community college budgets coming from state appropriations fell from 60.3 percent in 1981 to 32.9 percent in 2001.

Looking at the data together uncovers doozies like this one: In 2001, community colleges in five states received an average of 50 percent or more of their budgets from state funding--compared to schools in 22 states in 1981.

Says Roessler, who is in the process of getting the dissertation on funding trends for two-year colleges published: "I put some numbers and data to what people have been saying."--C.M.F.

Share of Total Rural, Suburban, and Urban
Community College Budgets by Source of Funds

  Type of Funding               1981          2001

Rural:
  State Appropriations         48.1%         37.3%
  Local Appropriations         15.6%         11.8%
  Tuition and Fees             14.2%         18.2%
  Contracts                     9.4%         22.2%

Suburban:
  Stater Appropriations        45.4%         31.8%
  Local Appropriations         20.3%         20.4%
  Tuition and Fees             17.1%         20.9%
  Contracts                     7.1%         16.2%

Urban:
  State Appropriations         47.0%         31.8%
  Local Appropriations         17.4%         13.8%
  Tuition and Fees             16.0%         19.1%
  Contracts                     9.3%         26.9%