Nearly a year ago, "NEJHE" launched its "New Directions for Higher Education" series to examine emerging issues, trends, and ideas that have an impact on higher education policies, programs, and practices. In this installment, DiSalvio interviews Muriel A. Howard, president of the American Association of State Colleges and…

Public cuts in financial support have hurt public colleges and students. The author argues that the fault lies in part with the colleges themselves. Many public-university administrators are incapable of convincing political and business leaders of the need for financial support because they are no longer fully convinced themselves. They have…

This report presents recommendations for a Unified Higher Education Budget for Alabama for fiscal year 1995-96. The recommendations are designed to effect improvements in the allocation of scarce education resources. An introductory section analyzes higher education funding over the 23-year period that the state-mandated unified budget…

The dependency of public institutions of higher education on state tax dollars is a major source of financial instability as other state agencies demand more tax dollars for other purposes. This paper presents a new formula for higher education funding and discusses the rationale and implications of implementing the new solution, which will allow…

Presents a dissenting view on the question of racial separation in higher education. It argues that the decision in Brown v. Board of Education was racist and that integration does not guarantee equality. The author states that all-black colleges are not inherently unequal and that separatism is a free and conscious choice in the context of…

Ten years ago, the state best known for its peaches launched a revolution that still reverberates in the halls of colleges and universities across the country. Faced with a plethora of poorly performing high-school students and a growing number of graduates fleeing the state for postsecondary study, Georgia unveiled its Helping Outstanding Pupils…

This report analyzes the following issues affecting public higher education: student charges; deferred maintenance; state fiscal conditions; the National Retention Project; and prepaid tuition plans. In each section, the report includes an overview of the issue, and presents highlights, findings, analyses, extensive charts and graphs, and…

Applies economic theory to questions concerning the public financing of two-year colleges. Highlights two analytical constructs used in recommending educational policy: the principle of externalities and the theory of human capital. Considers the effect of academic/vocational program mix on educational financing and issues of equity and access.…

This report addresses the future financing of higher education, focusing primarily on the states and presenting state-by-state data on important trends. It assesses the outlook for state finances, and, in the context of the ongoing needs of other major state services, for state support of higher education. In examining the forecast of state and…

This report identifies and discusses some key findings of a data base project that analyzed public finance of public education over 35 years in California. It seeks to understand the relationship between state policy, as expressed in the Master Plan for Higher Education, and financial support of higher education. Among findings highlighted are the…

There is an increasingly popular view of government to shift costs of education formerly borne at the national level to the states, and the states, in turn to shift costs and risks to individuals that has created a "perfect storm" of economic and political trends. The idea of privatizing a portion of Social Security and the continuing press for…

Examines implications of financial forecasts for the next decade on institutions of higher education. These address the pressures on state spending for higher education of substantially increased student enrollments, likely responses of public institutions, likely responses of state systems, and financial pressures on private institutions. Both…

This report presents recommendations for a Unified Higher Education Budget for Alabama for fiscal year 1997-98. The Alabama Commission on Higher Education presents two sets of funding recommendations for all higher education for fiscal year 1997-98. The first is a statement of the Commission's estimate of basic financial requirements to provide…

Eight common objections to performance funding of public colleges are presented and answered. The arguments focus on the complexity of higher education's goals, diversity of institution type, subjectivity of educational quality, relative power of the allocation amounts linked to performance measures, politics of resource allocation, cost of…

This article reviews the development of state funding formulas or guidelines for public higher education. Originally viewed as a means to distribute public funds in a rational and equitable manner, they now are complicated methodologies. Funding formulas are all-inclusive or itemized; most states use the itemized approach. There are three…