pols lecture 34

• Primary & secondary education (K-12)

  • Large role for local gov'ts
  • School districts, or city / county
  • Variance in state centralization over education
• Higher education


  • Role of gov't is largely at the state level
  • More recently, expanded emphasis on local/community colleges (public junior colleges)
• Local gov'ts


  • May fund public junior colleges (community colleges) w/ local taxes (i.e. property taxes)
  • May offer scholarships or reduced tuition to local residents
• States

  • Strong state identities to higher ed. institutions
  • Allowed to charge different tuition for non-residents (Not violation of U.S. Constitution's privileges & immunities clause!)
• Federal

  Regional accrediting bodies recognized by U.S. Dept. of Education
• Morrill Act (1862)

  1. Land-grant act aimed to open educational opportunities to farmers & working class

  2. Federal land donated to states to establish colleges & universities "for the benefit of agriculture & the mechanic arts"

  3. About 10M acres of this land was expropriated from tribal lands
• Morrill Act (1890)

  1. Grants-in-aid, not a land-grant

  2. Aimed to extend the Morrill Act to former Confederate states by addressing race restrictions

  3. Required states either to show race was not an admissions criterion or designate a separate institution for African Americans

  4. Mixed legacy: Creation of HBCUs that provided educational opportunity for African Americans

  5. Allowed for the segregation of higher education
• Hatch Act (1887)


  1. Federal grants-in-aid for agricultural research, writ broad

  2. Established of State Agricultural Experiment Stations to conduct research

  3. E.g.Texas A&M AgriLife Research
• Other federal grants


  • Gov't funding given directly to those providing a service
  • Either formula grants or discretionary grants
• Role of States in Higher Education

  • Establish colleges & universities
  • State regulation of colleges & universities, including:
  • Tuition, financing, reporting, Research, Admissions, Some curriculum requirements
  • Share responsibility for funding
• Funding sources for Texas public universities

  • Appropriation in state budget
  • Permanent University Fund (For UT & A&M)
  • Texas University Fund (New!) (For "emerging Texas research universities")
  • Student tuition & fees
  • Endowments, donations, gifts, etc.
  • Public & private grants
• Nationwide trend, not just Texas, of rising cost of higher education
• Drivers of rising cost of higher education

  • Ready availability of federal student aid
  • More "education spending dollars" (i.e. money supply) has lead to tuition
  • inflation
  • Student demand for services & facilities
  • The "packages" of goods & services offered by universities have become more
  • lavish
  • Declining state support in funding
• States are required to pass a balance budget


  • In economic downturns, states cut funding
  • Higher ed. funding easier to "cut" than K-12 ed.
  • Gov't service "used" by fewer residents
  • During recoveries, states resume some of their funding
  • But rarely does funding return to former levels!
• Result of state funding cuts

  Increased annual tuition for both public four-year colleges & junior colleges
• 2003: 78th Texas Legislature meets

  1. Texas faces a revenue shortfall

  2. Lege wants to balance budget w/o raising taxes!

  3. Result: Tuition deregulation

  4. Legislature cedes control of setting tuition costs to colleges & universities to make up for higher ed. funding cuts

  5. The market (not the state) sets the price
• Policies considered to address college affordability

  • Performance-based tuition increases
  • Tuition freezes or caps
  • Return to regulation
• Education is one of the states' biggest spending items
• Texas is a low-tax, low-spending state


  • For K-12, state pushes costs to local gov't
  • Result is high local property taxes
  • Use of property taxes also creates educational inequities
  • For higher ed., costs pushed to students, families, etc.
• "Winners" are arguably those who do not & will not utilize state-supported higher educational services