Death by a thousand, unnoticeable cuts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
That\u2019s how inflation, declining enrollment and an opaque funding system for Virginia\u2019s institutions has felt to some of the institutions that do the most as an engine of economic mobility in the state.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Those challenges crystalized last month, when the CFO of Virginia Commonwealth University said the school needed an influx of $51 million to maintain its educational standards.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWe\u2019re at a critical point where we have to decide if we\u2019re going to erode the quality and the retention of our strong faculty and advisers and staff due to the budgetary problems we\u2019re facing,\u201d said Karol Kain Gray, VCU\u2019s chief financial officer.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Virginia\u2019s unique structure for funding schools may be one of the most broken, according to critics \u2014 unique because schools don\u2019t work through a central university system, like they do in New York, North Carolina or Texas, which allot taxpayer dollars according to a formula; broken because the results have hurt poorer students, leaving them saddled with debt, experts say, as state dollars aren\u2019t going where they should.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In 2021, a State Higher Education Finance Report found that Virginia students shouldered thousands of dollars more in tuition costs than the average American student. Virginia students contributed $9,000 in tuition revenue, compared to a U.S. average of $6,700, according to SHEF data.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Gray<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n The data seemingly runs counter to Virginia\u2019s brand as a bastion of higher education. It boasts the state\u2019s oldest university, the College of William & Mary, as well as one of the most highly ranked public universities in the University of Virginia. Across all its public universities, Virginia has one of the highest graduation rates in the country.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n But that narrative does much to hide the truth: that wealthier universities are doing very well, while universities that accept a wider range of students are struggling and getting less help from the state legislature.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n It\u2019s a point of concern to James Murphy, policy analyst with Education Reform Now, a national think tank focused on education access. In September, his organization released a report describing a state of \u201cde facto segregation by income and race\u201d in Virginia higher education.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Unlike states with a centralized university system, Virginia\u2019s legislature funds each university on a case-by-case basis, generally giving each a little more year after year but doing so in response to lobbying by each university, which pitch their needs to state Senate and House education committees.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The result is a disbursement system that even the state\u2019s own higher education has described as \u201cirrational.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Gordon<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIf Virginia is going to invest in public education, it should probably focus its attention on the institutions that are moving the needle the most,\u201d Murphy said. \u201cIf you\u2019re a place like William & Mary, where close to half of the students don\u2019t even take out financial aid. Or if you\u2019re a place like UVa, where you\u2019re enrolling the state\u2019s wealthiest students, on top of more than a billion-dollar endowment, the state may not need to invest as much in you, because you\u2019re already wealthy. You\u2019re not enrolling the lion\u2019s share of students who come from low-income backgrounds.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Some money does go to the neediest schools. University of Virginia\u2019s Wise Campus, Virginia State University and Norfolk State University rank among the highest in terms of how much the state gives them per student. All three are schools that enroll high numbers of lower-income students.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n But other allotments make less sense, such as the high allotments that go to Christopher Newport University, where just 13% of students qualified for Pell grants. Pell grants are federal grants awarded to students with exceptional financial need and don\u2019t need to be repaid.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Another that doesn\u2019t figure is George Mason University, which ranks highly in terms of the social mobility it offers its students: the ability to intake a student from a poorer background and output them with a career that allows them to move up the rungs of the economic ladder.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n By comparison, William & Mary received double the amount per student in 2019, despite enrolling half the percentage. While nearly 30% of GMU students qualified for Pell grants, just 12% qualified at William & Mary, according to data from Third Way, a think tank that produced economic mobility rankings for schools nationally.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n George Mason ranked last in terms of state appropriations.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s the best way to invest this money? We argue that the best way to [invest] money is in the institutions that are really having a transformative effect,\u201d Murphy said. \u201cVirginia\u2019s not doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In July of last year, a $300,000 report from the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia made a similar point. The report found that the state was \u201cwell below the national average\u201d in funding public institutions, but well ahead of the rest of the country in the cost borne by students.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n SCHEV found that the current system of last year\u2019s total, adding a bit more, and sending schools on their way \u2014 technically known as \u201cBase Adequacy\u201d \u2014 made less sense than a system that used formulas aligned with state goals.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n And it highlighted the vulnerability of schools like George Mason.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cInstitutions that are typically most affected by unpredictable state funding support are those that primarily serve higher proportions of low-income, under-represented students,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n While the report was meant to drive change, it landed as a suggestion to legislators rather than as new marching orders. Employees with SCHEV tried to get their new framework adopted, but ultimately struggled to get a consensus of legislators to agree on the framework.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In a statement, SCHEV Director Peter Blake said, \u201cFunding a higher education system as diverse as Virginia\u2019s requires compromise between many different stakeholders. It will always be difficult to get all involved to agree on a single set of guidelines.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Focus on taxpayer dollars <\/p>\n<\/div>\n At the Capitol, lobbyists say it\u2019s not just a game of compromise, but one of mistrust. Politicians nationwide have grown less inclined to sign checks for higher ed and more curious about how schools use taxpayer dollars.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Sen. Tommy Norment, R-James City (right), confers with Sen. Dick Saslaw, D-Fairfax, at the state Capitol on Wednesday. Norment has introduced legislation that would require universities to detail tuition spending.<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n This month, state Sen. Tommy Norment, R-James City, introduced two bills that would require universities to detail their tuition spending and require approval from SCHEV for starting new programs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In the House, Del. Kathy Byron, R-Bedford, introduced a bill asking the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission to perform a rigorous cost-efficiency study of universities.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Stacie Gordon, executive director of Partners for College Affordability and Public Trust, says Virginia legislators want more accountability.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThey want more accountability and more oversight. It all comes back to money,\u201d said Gordon, who lobbies legislators alongside liaisons from different universities.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThere\u2019s obviously a need to invest in higher education, and hopefully going forward, it\u2019ll be under a better model, once SCHEV\u2019s model is up and running,\u201d Gordon said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n By the numbers: President Biden at the two-year mark<\/h3>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 6.5%:<\/strong> Annual inflation remains stubbornly high, but is slowly falling after reaching a four-decade high of 9.1% in June.<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 10.46 million:<\/strong> The latest Labor Department figures show more than 10 million job vacancies in the U.S., nearly 1.8 jobs for every unemployed person. Jobless rate at 3.5%, matching a 53-year low. Zero recessions \u2014 so far.<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n $31.38 trillion:<\/strong> The federal debt stood at $27.6 trillion when Biden took office.<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n $24.2 billion:<\/strong> The amount of U.S. security assistance committed to Ukraine since the Russian invasion nearly 11 months ago.<\/p>\n 38:<\/strong> The number of High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, known as HIMARS, committed to send to Ukraine. A gamechanger, allowing Ukrainian forces to fire at Russian targets from far away, then drive away before artillery can target them.<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 2.38 million:<\/strong> For the 12 months ending Sept. 30, 2022, Customs and Border Protection reported stopping migrants at the U.S. border nearly 2.4 million times, a record surge driven by sharp increases in Venezuelans, Cubans and Nicaraguans. The previous high was 1.66 million in 2021.<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 97:<\/strong> Confirmation of Biden’s picks to the federal bench, including Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, outpacing the president’s two immediate predecessors.<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 89:<\/strong> The president has granted nine pardons and 80 commutations, far more than any of his recent predecessors at this point. Donald Trump had granted 11 by this time, George W. Bush seven. Barack Obama didn’t take any clemency action in his first two years.<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n People are also reading\u2026<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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6.5% annual inflation<\/h3>\n
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\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n89 pardons and commutations<\/h3>\n
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