Dive Brief:

• New America has already called for a new higher education funding plan that would offer students access without the need to take on debt, and now it has positioned that proposal into a growing field of solutions highlighted by other think tanks, nonprofits, universities, and government agencies.
• Through its EdCentral blog, New America writes its follow-up paper, “Strengthening the Partnership,” finds a unifying goal across proposals to restore state funding, generally through federal matching grants, but New America’s plan would require starting from scratch, eliminating Pell Grants, tax credits, and other programs to make way for a new aid formula that requires state matches.
• While the federal government has attempted to increase its share of higher education funding by expanding Pell Grant access and awards, New America’s analysis is clear that state disinvestment is the problem to solve.

Dive Insight:

Traditionally, the federal government has partnered with states and families to cover the cost of higher education. Tuition has gone up significantly in recent years and state funding has dropped. Louisiana has been singled out as the worst in the nation, spending 41% less per student in 2014 than in 2008. Arizona, too, gets a superlative for cutting funding by 27% since 2011. That state now has public, community colleges that get no state funding.

The vast majority of states, however, have engaged in a slow increase in funding in the last couple years. Thirty-nine states reported spending more this academic year than last year. The increases are slow, however, and New America believes radical change, rather than incremental progress, is the best path forward.

Recommended Reading

EdCentral: Strengthening the Partnership: A Survey of Proposed Higher Education Funding Solutions