UC's Funding Challenge
A very serious funding challenge faces public higher education. Both in California and nationally, state spending on higher education is decreasing as a share of state expenditures and personal income. Since 1970, the portion of the state General Fund going to the University of California has fallen by half, from 7% to 3.5%. Over the first four years of the 2000s alone, UC's state funding fell by 15% while the University was accommodating a 19% increase in student enrollment.
Long-Term Decline in UC's Share of State General Fund Budget
The state of California provides roughly 20% of UC revenue annually. But it is a crucial 20% because it pays the cost of student instruction and faculty salaries. An important consequence of this trend of declining state support is that the gap between public and private universities in America is widening in terms of per-student spending, faculty salaries, and student-faculty ratios.
Ratio of Public to Private Institutions' Expenditures per Student
UC Faculty Salaries Are Further Below the Privates
This growing gap between the publics and privates is a problem because UC must remain competitive for the best faculty and best students if it is to preserve the kind of impact it historically has had on California. A resource gap worsens UC’s competitive position.
The 2005-06 state budget and UC’s compact with the governor begin to provide short-term relief from the substantial budget cuts of the last few years. But the budget realities at the state level (where much of the spending is dictated by formulas and caseload increases for many programs, leaving higher education vulnerable) and at the federal level (where the deficit has grown substantially in recent years) make it unlikely that public universities, including UC, will be able to close the larger, longer-term gap with the nation’s private universities by relying upon large new infusions of money from the government. The threat is a threat to UC’s quality.
So – California in the coming years will have more need than ever for higher education, but perhaps less capacity than ever on the part of government to fund it.
What other issues should we consider?