Friday News Roundup: Week of July 16-20

Mississippi schools to seek $320 million more in 2014

New Jersey’s Rutgers University raises in-state tuition 2.5 percent despite protests

South Carolina Senate overrides veto of $10 million for teachers

Audit: Colorado tuition up, state stipend decreases

Mississippi schools to seek $320 million more in 2014
The Mississippi State Board of Education this week released its official request to legislators for the amount of funding public K-12 schools will require in the 2014 fiscal year. The formula, known as the Mississippi Adequate Education Program, requires the Board to request the full funding amount required under its calculations from lawmakers. However, legislators have often under-funded the formula. In the current 2013 fiscal year, for example, public schools received $2.04 billion, $251 million less than required by the formula. For next year, the Board has requested $2.34 billion – $321 million, or 16 percent, more than was provided this year. Legislators say it is too soon to say whether the state will be able to afford that. However, they are also likely to wait for the results of a commission appointed to review the funding formula and offer recommendations for improvement. More here…

New Jersey’s Rutgers University raises in-state tuition 2.5 percent despite protests
Rutgers University students went before the Rutgers Board of Governors and staged protests outside the board’s regular meeting this week to request a tuition freeze for the 2012-13 academic year, but without results. The board voted to raise tuition and fees for in-state students by 2.5 percent for the academic year beginning this fall. The tuition hike comes in spite of the fact that state funding for the school was held constant at 2012 levels this year; legislators cut funding for the school precipitously in recent years, and institutions are still struggling to make up the difference. The increase means New Jersey students will be charged $13,073 in tuition and fees this year, $318 more than last year. Room and board will also increase by 1.9 percent, up to an average of $10,970, or $206 more than last year. Graduate students and out-of-state undergraduate students also saw their costs rise – in-state graduate students will pay 2.5 percent more per credit hour, and out-of-state students will be charged a 4 percent increase, $910 more than last year. University officials said they plan to find $20 million to cut from the school’s budget over the next year to hold down costs. More here…

South Carolina Senate overrides veto of $10 million for teachers
The South Carolina Senate voted this week to restore $10 million in the state’s fiscal year 2013 budget that had been vetoed by Governor Nikki Haley. The funds will help compensate school districts for a state-required teacher salary bump this year. Without the state dollars, lawmakers said, districts would be required to raise property taxes to cover the mandatory two percent salary increases. Governor Haley stated that she vetoed the provision because it offered only one-time funding; the veto left intact $39 million for the salary increases that are paid for with recurring funds. The $10 million newly-restored dollars, meanwhile, came from an education innovation fund created in 1984 with a one-cent addition to the state sales tax, and would not necessarily be funded every year. More here…

Audit: Colorado tuition up, state stipend decreases
An audit of Colorado colleges released this week found that students are paying more in tuition since lawmakers began to decrease funding for a stipend program that provides money directly to students, rather than to institutions. The audit found that the recession slowed the implementation of the 2006 policy, called the College Opportunity Fund. Since the start of the recession, students’ stipends have dropped as the state struggled to keep up with its expenditures in the face of falling revenue. The per-credit hour stipend decreased from $80 in fiscal year 2006 to $62 in 2011; at the same time, institutions raised tuition in part to accommodate for lost state funding, up from $6,660 to $8,530 on average. Student enrollment also grew by about 24 percent, while state spending dropped from $272 million in 2006 to $269 million in 2011. Although the law requires the state department of higher education to request the full funding amount needed including inflation and enrollment increases, the department has not done so in recent years because of budgetary considerations. More here…