Director: Daniel C. Levy

More State Funding for Private Institutions: For the Needy or By the Strong?

(Entry by Daniel C. Levy)

PROPHE Summary:
Included in the fresh New York State budget are 150 million dollars for private higher education institutions through a new fund aimed at fund-raising and construction. Defenders invoke an access argument: data showing that the state's private sector is largely for families of modest income, lower than those at the SUNY state system. Critics note that these data omit the two-year sector, so important on the public side. Other concerns raised in the article involve financial contributions to legislators and the worthiness of this expenditure versus needs for public school education.

For the full story, see the New York Times, April 20, 2005, "New York's Private Colleges to Get State Aid From New Fund," by Patrick D. Healy.

PROPHE Observation:
State government funding of private higher education is often a controversial matter and is highly variable across U.S. states. New York is a longstanding leader in such funding, just as it is a leader in the private share of total enrollments. Money flows to institutions and through students. The present New York Times article does not spell out what is novel in the appropriation for fund-raising and capital expenses, or why such spending is more warranted, if the aim is to help access, than increases in student aid. Commonly in other states and in other countries, public funding for private higher education is either nil, limited, or targeted through students or special investments and projects, rather than through direct institutional subsidies. As to the socio-economic student mix, defying stereotypes about privates dominated by the wealthy it often is the case, as in New York, that there is great overlap between the two sectors, depending upon subsector. This reality creates difficulties for public policy that aims at a whole sector.