State spending on higher education has improved since the depths of the recession. But competition for public funds is intense in most states, where K-12, Medicaid and pensions are the primary budget drivers.
The funding outlook for public colleges is particularly dire in Illinois and Maryland, where incoming Republican governors have promised to roll back taxes in coming months.
Potential cuts in Illinois would follow more than a decade of slumping support. Many Illinois community colleges, for example, now get roughly 5 percent of their revenue from the state, with larger portions coming from tuition and local government support.
For example, state spending at Harper College, in Chicago's northwest suburbs, fell below a 10 percent share of the budget for the first time in 2005. The $7 million the college will receive from the state this year is 6.4 percent of its total revenue.
"This is just money that’s never coming back," said Kenneth Ender, Harper's president.
Read more at Inside Higher Ed: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/12/03/two-year-colleges-illinois-and-other-states-lean-local-government-funding