State funding for public higher education has decreased over the last 20 years as a percentage of institutions' operating budgets. This report examines funding changes for higher education in Connecticut overall and specifically at UConn, the Connecticut State University (CSU) system, and the community-technical colleges (CTC).

TRENDS IN THE PAST TWO DECADES

A trend in public higher education nationwide is the decreasing share of institutions' operating budgets from state funding. In Connecticut, the state share (money from the General Fund) of operating budgets for UConn, CSU, and CTC is substantially lower than it was two decades ago, as shown in Table 1.

Table 1: General Fund Expenditures as Percentage of Total Operating Expenditures

However, these declining percentages have not been caused by absolute funding decreases by the state (although in some years funding did decrease or remain flat), but by increases in the institutions' total operating expenditures that outpaced increases in state appropriations.

We examined expenditure data and in-state tuition rates from FY 1990 to FY 2009 for UConn, CSU, and CTC and compared these figures with overall state spending. We found that (1) annual growth in the constituent units' combined General Fund expenditures was less than the growth in overall state spending and (2) both the constituent units' combined operating expenditures and average in-state tuition increased at a faster rate than overall state spending.

Table 2 shows, from FY 1990 to FY 2009, both the cumulative and average annual increases in (1) General Fund and total operating expenditures, (2) in-state tuition, and (3) total state spending. The figures for General Fund expenditures, total operating expenditures, and in-state tuition are based on averages of UConn, CSU, and CTC. A breakdown by constituent unit is shown in Table 3.

Table 2: Percentage Increases FY 1990- FY 2009

Source: The expenditure data are from budget books published by the Office of Fiscal Analysis (OFA) while the in-state tuition data are from the Department of Higher Education (DHE).

Table 3: Percentage Increases by Constituent Unit,
FY 1990- FY 2009

Source: The expenditure data are from budget books published by OFA while the in-state tuition data are from DHE.

IMPACT OF DECLINING STATE SHARE

A consequence of the disparate growth in General Fund expenditures and total operating expenditures is that the constituent units have sought additional revenue from other sources, such as tuition and fees, private giving, and federal funding. This is one reason why tuition and fees have risen substantially in the past two decades. However, for the state to have maintained the same share of the constituent units' budgets as it provided in FY 90 (see Table 1), it would have needed to spend nearly $450 million more in FY 09 (see Table 4).

Table 4: Impact of Declining State Share of Constituent Units' Operating Budgets

ANNUAL DATA BY CONSTITUENT UNIT

Annual figures for expenditures and in-state tuition at each constituent unit are shown in Tables 5, 6, and 7 (for UConn, CSU, and CTC, respectively), along with percent changes from the previous year. Again, the data are from OFA and DHE. All figures are in current dollars.

For both in-state tuition and total operating expenditures, CSU saw the fastest growth, followed by UConn and CTC. For general fund expenditures, the opposite was true; CTC saw the fastest growth, followed by UConn and CSU.

A noteworthy trend is the substantial fluctuation in constituent units' General Fund expenditures, with annual changes ranging from decreases of more than 6% to increases of more than 14%.

Table 5: UConn Expenditures and Tuition

Table 6: CSU Expenditures and Tuition

Table 7: CTC Expenditures and Tuition

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