Missouri 'kept college affordable' during recession

Missouri college students shouldered a significantly lower level of the cost of higher education compared to their peers nationwide during the worst of the recession, according to a recently released report.

The State Higher Education Finance Report ranks Missouri 49th in the nation in the change in total higher education spending per student between 2005 and 2010. The report, issued by the State Higher Education Executive Officers, details how state systems of higher education have been affected by the recession.

The average national increase in spending per student was 3.4 percent over the period, but in Missouri spending per student decreased by 12 percent. The lower student costs were thanks in large part to a tuition freeze over the past two years. Gov. Jay Nixon and Missouri's colleges and universities brokered a deal that held tuition flat in exchange for a $50 million funding cut this year and an essentially flat amount of state aid the previous year.

"It kept college affordable for students," said Kathryn Love, spokeswoman for the Missouri Department of Higher Education. "That's the silver lining of the cloud of cuts to higher education."

Love said Missouri's institutions of higher education have had to become more efficient, but they have not passed declining state funding and rising expenses on to students, at least by comparison.

The study found Missouri's net tuition revenue per full-time equivalent students declined 13.9 percent to $4,038 over the five-year period.

At Southeast Missouri State University, tuition -- incidental and general fees combined -- have remained flat, at $208.50 per credit hour, over the past three years, according to Debbie Below, the university's assistant vice president for enrollment management and director of admissions. The cost for four years at Southeast, not including room and board, is just shy of $26,000.

Stable tuition "has allowed for stability in a time when things were very unstable," Below said. "Families were facing all kinds of uncertainty in their home budgets, and I think it helped when the bill from the university arrived and it was the same as last year."

But the tuition freeze appears destined for a rapid thaw. The deal to hold tuition flat expires after the current school year. Many colleges and universities already have indicated they plan to raise tuition next school year to offset some of the state funding cuts, even as Nixon proposes holding higher education budget cuts to 7 percent, a plan that is considered a major victory for a public sector that faced the possibility of 15 to 20 percent funding reductions.

Southeast president Ken Dobbins said the university's budget review committee is exploring a tuition increase in the 4 to 5 percent range. A proposal is expected to go before Southeast's board of regents in May, Dobbins said. Students also will face higher fees to cover the brunt of a massive campuswide renovation and maintenance plan, slated to begin this year.

While Missouri has kept public college and university tuition in check, state appropriations to higher education in recent years have plummeted.

The recession has taken a toll on state budgets -- and higher education aid in particular -- everywhere. State revenue has fallen at an unprecedented rate and full recovery will, at best, take several years, according to the National Association of State Budget Officers.

Missouri cut its per student funding by 10 percent, among 30 states to trim educational spending, some by more than 20 percent, according to the Finance Report. Lower state appropriations has been a reality everywhere in the last generation. In 1985, colleges received about 23 percent of their revenue from tuition; in 2010, the percentage rose to 40 percent, according to the report. In Missouri, revenue from tuition rose from 32 percent of institutions' budgets in 2001 to 46 percent in 2009.

Meanwhile, Missouri has seen a surge in enrollment. Between 2005 and 2010, the number of students rose nearly 18 percent, with 256,527 enrolled in the state's public colleges and universities.

Southeast's enrollment has climbed a smaller 8 percent between 2005 and fall 2010, to 11,112 students, but the university has set continuous enrollment records over the period.

"We're seeing more students but not a corresponding increase in state appropriations to serve those students," Dobbins said. "We can do it for a while, but sooner or later something is going to have to give."

Eventually, Dobbins said, the cost will have to be paid through diminished educational programming and, ultimately, borne by Missouri's employers in a competitive economy.

"We don't want to give so much the academic programs aren't what we need and aren't the quality our employers who hire our graduates want," he said, noting a two-year salary freeze for faculty and staff could prove to hurt hiring and retaining quality employees in a national higher education job market.

"We don't want to minimize the issue of quality," he said.

mkittle@semissourian.com

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