Minnesota Higher Education Will See 10% Cut In New Budget

A new bill will cut the amount of funds institutions of higher education receive from the state of Minnesota over the next two years

Tim Post, of Minnesota Public Radio, has been reporting on a new bill in the State Legislature that would take a chunk out of the budget for public institutions of higher education.  In the next two years the University of Minnesota and the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system will each receive a little over a billion dollars in state aid, 10 percent less than they received in the previous two years.

But the colleges will see more money than they would have under a Republican-backed proposal that Gov. Mark Dayton vetoed in the spring. After Dayton and Republican Legislative leaders agreed to a budget framework to end a state government shutdown, a special session of the Minnesota Legislature was called to order Tuesday.

One of the bills that Gov. Dayton and legislative leaders have agreed to is one that funds higher education.  The $2.6 billion dollar bill cuts funding by 8.8 percent over current levels.  Besides specifying funding levels, the bill caps tuition for some students, and requires colleges to meet certain performance goals to earn all of their state funds.  The bill adds $60 million dollars to the Republican proposal. It directs $50 million to the University of Minnesota and $10 million to the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system.

The extra money won’t make much of a difference, MnSCU spokesperson Linda Kohl said.

“If you take that divide it into our 31 institutions, it’s not a whole lot of money for any one institution,” Kohl said. “Sure, it’s better than not having it.”

Administrators at the U of M set their current budget on funding outlined in the Republican proposal, something they considered the worst case scenario. They promised to use a portion of any additional money above those levels to lower the cost of tuition for students. The U of M administration expects to increase tuition an average of 5 percent in the fall.