Why We Should Care About Budget Cuts in Higher Education

I was browsing the news today and typed into my search budget cuts in colleges. Here are a couple of the headlines that came up: Mo. colleges told to prepare for deep budget cuts and Budget cuts scrap scholarship program for low-income students. Okay, so this is nothing new. Budget cuts are happening in every industry. Why should we especially care about budget cuts in higher education?

Consider this: over the last year, how many newly unemployed people do you know who said, "I'm thinking of going back to school"? Great. A higher education can help a person earn more money, open their potential job range, and, especially in the case of two year colleges, fill so many of those necessary positions like registered nurses, court reporters, and paralegals. But if those same institutions that are providing my friend with these excellent opportunities have less money, are they going to be able to provide the services required by a student?

What is the most important student resource in any college? The teachers. As we all know, budget cuts mean employee layoffs. The majority of employees at colleges and universities are, you guessed it, teachers. Fewer teachers means fewer classes or more students per class. Both of those affect my friend the student because the class they want isn't available, they don't get the personal attention they would have gotten, or they aren't accepted into school in the first place because there aren't enough spaces due to fewer classes. Now my friend is still unemployed, not getting the kind of education she needs to advance, and the unemployment rate continues to grow as teachers are laid off. Starting to sound pretty ominous?

Even when budgets are cut, basic expenses still need to be paid. How will colleges do that with less money coming in? Raise tuition. According to the College Board, in the 2009-2010 school year, the average cost of a two-year public college rose 7.3%. The average cost of four-year public college rose 6.5%. Remember that my friend recently lost her job and that is why she is going back to school. Where is she going to get that money? A scholarship? Maybe, but schools are decreasing the number awarded due to, you guessed it, budget cuts. A student loan? Potentially, but those are harder to come by these days, and my friend will need to spend the next number of years paying off her student loans. Not that appealing. Now my friend is still unemployed and her best option for finding a better future could very well land her further in debt. Gloomy, huh?

So, why should we care about budget cuts in higher education? We should care because, for most of us, going back to school is a back up plan. Budget cuts mean that our back up plan may fail. Do you have a back up plan for your back up plan?

Photo credit: Max Wolfe