The Financing Of Public Higher Education In Colorado

The Commission initiated a funding to review national funding models for higher education led by the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems (NCHEMS). Each institution contributed to the cost of the study and participated in the effort. NCHEMS' key recommendation is to move the funding discussions for higher education away from a cost model to a revenue-driven model. The fundamental question NCHEMS posed was how to determine whether institutions were adequately and equitably funded: i.e., each institution has adequate resources for the unique missions and resulting program offerings that affect cost. NCHEMS identified two sets of national models: one that uses costs, formulas and pieces of the structure of higher education to negotiate funding and the other that uses benchmarks developed through comparative institution analysis taking into consideration revenue in addition to costs. Based on NCHEMS' recommendation to utilize a model that benchmarks data and revenues, comparable institutional benchmarks were developed for each public higher education institution in Colorado. Using a revenue-driven model calculates the total of general tax funds and tuition and fees provided for operation of higher education. This model is not intended to be based on actual costs and does not take into account relative tax bases, governance structures, or history of funding. This model is not intended to serve as a distribution/allocation model. Further work must be conducted collaboratively with all stakeholders before decisions are made on proper allocation models. The following information is attached: (1) Criteria used by NCHEMS to select the benchmark institutions and to show each institution's benchmark/peer groups; (2) Percent of funding Colorado institutions receive compared to their benchmark institutions; (3) Series of charts showing the proportion of revenues as percent of funding by type of institution; (4) Each institution as a percent of their peer/benchmark institutions; and (5) Resident and Non-resident tuition and fee rates. (Contains 30 figures and 28 tables.).

This book chronicles the change in public funding for post secondary education in Colorado from 1970 to 2010. Colorado was ranked sixth among states in per capita funding for higher education in 1970 and declined to 48th in 2010. The study analyzed state appropriations in five broad categories of spending: K-12 primary education, health and human services, courts and criminal justice, and all remaining functions of state government. Findings demonstrate that since 1970, after adjusting for inflation, state general fund budget appropriations have increased by much greater percentages for K-12 education, health and human services, and the courts and criminal justice programs. Higher education general fund appropriations increased by 8.9% over this time period and other parts of state government actually declined. Since 1970, higher education enrollment in Colorado grew by 138%, thus, in inflation adjusted terms, state spending on higher education on a per student basis declined by 55%. The book's recommendations call for leadership to address the underlying problems that are forcing public higher education dangerously close to privatization.