Solution
Robert answered on
Dec 29 2021
Education Budget Cuts and the Quality of Education
1. Introduction
The global recession which began in 2008, has given rise to a worst fiscal crisis in the United States (US). Many states in the US are making sharp cuts in their budgetary allocation to different sectors of the economy to recover from the fiscal crisis. These cuts in turn have adversely affected the states because households and businesses now have less to spend. The federal stimulus package has greatly reduced the economic impact of these cuts, but that also to a certain point. According to a report presented by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), the cut passed in 46 states, since 2008, have affected many major economic sectors, including health care (31 states), services to disabled and elderly (29 states including the District of Columbia (DC)), K-12 education (34 states and DC), higher education (43 states) and other sectors of the economy. States made these cuts because in the face of recession revenue raised from different sources, including taxes, were not sufficient to meet the growing demand for these services. However, cuts to these services did not help in the successful recovery of economy from the recession as demand has fallen, unemployment rate has risen, welfare payments to individuals have decreased, payments to businesses have decreased, and production has fallen. For instance, the federal data show that since 2008 nearly 400,000 jobs were eliminated by both the state and the federal governments. States initiated pay cuts by workers’ layoffs, giving unpaid leave, and preventing new hires. Some states have also tried to mitigate the actions of these budget cuts through tax increases. These measures are not only deteriorating the quality of services available to the residents of these states, but also decreasing the purchasing power of individuals and families, thereby reducing demand and slow recovery.
1.1. Education Budget Cut
These cuts have also adversely affected the funding for education, including higher education (public colleges and universities), in these states. According to CBPP, at least 34 states, including DC, will cut aid to K-12 schools and various education programs (including adult education and help for high need students). Nearly 43 states have reduced their assistance to public colleges and universities, resulting into a rise in the tuition cost followed by an increase in the faculty and staff attrition rates and an increase in the class-size, thereby reducing the quality of education.
1.1.1. Budget Cut for K-12 Education and Other Childhood Education Programs
States like Colorado, Minnesota, and Virginia have cut public school spending by $260 million, reduced financial aid grants for approximately 9,400 college students, and decreased nearly $700 million in the K-12 education towards school district operation, capital expenses, and class-size reduction, respectively in FY2011. Arizona reduced preschool for nearly 4,328 children and decreased funds for kindergarten in the same fiscal year. Georgia and Illinois cut education funding by $403 million and $311 million, respectively, in the FY2011. In the FY2011, Michigan and Massachusetts cut school aid budget by nearly $382 and $115 million, respectively. Many other states (including Maryland, Missouri, and New Jersey) took measures like cut in the budget for professional development, school health clinics, early intervention services, school transportation services, and afterschool programs, etc.
1.1.2. Budget Cut for Public Colleges and Universities
Higher education system in the US is decentralized and is controlled by the state governments. Over 75 percent of all students in the US attend public colleges, which are largely controlled and funded by the state governments (Douglass, 2010). Despite growing demand for enrollment, particularly in the public higher education sector where tuition costs are generally much lower than in the private institutions, the budget cut on higher education has resulted into cap or reduction in students’ enrollment and rising tuition costs in the overall education sector. It has raised the student attrition rate, lowered the degree production rate, increased enrollment in part-time schools, and higher burden on students and their families to meet educational expenses.
The public colleges and universities receive majority of their financial support from the states. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, the state governments (35.6%) allotted more than three times the fund allotted by the federal government (11.2%) and twice the fund received from tuition and fees (18.1%) towards educational funding in 2001 (Carter, 2011). In the Higher Education Act of 1965, federal government were responsible to provide all the grants and loans to the students and colleges were responsible for keeping the tuition costs low and affordable (Burd, 2005). However, over the past several years due to the rising tuition costs, sluggish state and federal grants, and continued pressure on states from the federal government to invest in other areas (such as increase health insurance coverage through Medicare and Medicaid, providing assistance to poor and needy families, and more financial assistance to K-12 educational institutions for No Child Left Behind legislation (Resnick, 2004), the state government gradually reallocated their funds from higher education to meet the growing demands of other public policies (Carter, 2011). This increasing budget cut on higher education is still prevalent with passage of each new legislation (Coleman et al., 2011).
In the FY2011, states like Alabama, Arizona, California, and Florida, hiked undergraduate tuition by 8 to 15 percent. Additionally, these states have also reduced state-funded salary spending through layoffs, position eliminations, hiring fewer tenure-eligible faculty, and higher teaching workloads and increased employee contribution to health and retirement benefits (Johnson, 2011). Some universities in Idaho imposed temporary unpaid leave of employee (furlough) in order to respond to the budget cut. Furloughs in these institutions will range from 4 to 40 hours depending on the pay leave (Rashid and Johnson, 2011). Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, and New Mexico responded to the budget cuts by reduction of student financial aid and grants, which are likely to affect a large number of students, especially students in the lower income group through reduction in the need-based scholarship funds. Tuition costs also increased due to the budget cuts, where states like North Carolina, South Dakota, Virginia, and Washington increased undergraduate tuition costs by almost 5% and 30%. Moreover, in Washington, the state cut aid to public universities and community colleges is expected to increase the tuition cost further. This will also result into more administrative cuts, furloughs, layoffs, and other cuts. The state also reduced the college work-study by nearly one-third and eliminated funding for a number of financial aid programs (Johnson, 2011).
Despite the budget cuts have hit the economy adversely in number of ways, but the education budget cut has both positive and negative effects on the economy (Coleman et al., 2011).
The paper is organized as following: In Section 2, I discuss both the positive and the negative effects of the education budget cut on the overall education system using...