Friday News Roundup: Week of December 9-13

Nevada lawmakers begin discussion about allocation of higher ed dollars

$700 million in New York school aid put at risk

$30.5 million funding hike sought for Mississippi colleges

Governor Brownback proposes tight Kansas budget

Nevada lawmakers begin discussion about allocation of higher ed dollars
This week, Nevada lawmakers held the first meeting of the state’s Committee to Study the Funding of Higher Education. The committee, established last year by the legislature, will look at how the state allocates funds to its colleges and universities and reframe the formula by which that funding is distributed. Currently, some say, the formula is inequitable – shortchanging the University of Nevada at Las Vegas (UNLV) and the College of Southern Nevada a combined $55 million every two years, according to State Senator John Lee. Although UNLV students contribute 48 percent of the state’s total tuition dollars (which are then pooled by the state and redistributed among all of the state’s institutions), it receives only 34 percent of state funding for higher education. Members of the committee have said that the state’s new funding formula should include metrics like graduation rates to award higher performing institutions. The biggest controversy, though, has been a split between the southern and northern parts of the state; southern Nevadans claim that the state consistently subsidizes northern counties, while the population – and tax revenue – are concentrated more in southern Nevada. More here…

$700 million in New York school aid put at risk
New York, which has seen substantial pushback from teachers unions and school districts on its efforts to overhaul district-wide teacher evaluation systems, is now in danger of losing $700 million in federal Race to the Top grant money. The New York State United Teachers Union has sued the state over last-minute changes to teacher evaluations that weighted students’ test scores more heavily than anticipated. With no resolution to the case in place and ten school districts yet to establish a new teacher and principal evaluation system, the state is running out of time. Governor Cuomo last week froze funding through the School Improvement Grant program for those ten districts, and the White House is now threatening to withhold the state’s $700 million Race to the Top grant. More here…

$30.5 million funding hike sought for Mississippi colleges
The Mississippi state College Board is requesting a 4.3 percent increase in funding for fiscal year 2013 – $30.5 million – over 2012 levels. The total funding request for the state’s eight public universities is close to $747 million. And although the university system laid off 115 employees last week, no state funding would go to rehiring staff. The request includes 2 percent more in funding for student financial aid (totaling $32 million) among other funding increases. Separately, the College Board is requesting $337 million in state bonds for facility maintenance. The community college system is also planning to request additional funding in fiscal year 2013. A law passed in 2007, the Mid-Level Funding Act, would fund community colleges at the midway point between per-student funding at the K-12 public schools and universities, which one official says would be $5,600 per student this year, but in fiscal year 2012, the community college system received only $3,300 per student. More here…

Governor Brownback proposes tight Kansas budget
Kansas Governor Sam Brownback this week set out his fiscal year 2013 budget proposal. The full budget request is about $39 million below current fiscal year 2012 funding, which totals approximately $6.1 billion in general funds; including federal funds, the fiscal year 2013 budget would drop by nearly $600 million from fiscal year 2012 levels. Additionally, the request includes an effort to build up $465 million in cash reserves by the end of June 2013, as promised in his State of the State address last week. Governor Brownback’s budget proposes funding K-12 schools at the fiscal year 2012 level. It also includes around $39 million in tobacco settlement funds to support programs like early childhood education, a decline of 32 percent from the 2012 budget. More here…