Higher education is not that popular across the state and the nation. That word from Dr. Charles Welch, Arkansas State University System President. He told those attending yesterday’s Faculty Conference in Jonesboro that higher education has been hit hard by a lack of new funding from the state. At the same time, Dr. Welch says higher education is also undergoing a perception issue, which he hears a lot in the form of three myths.
“We’re out of control in our spending, we are out of control in our tuition hikes, and we are out of control in everything that we do. I want to say that is not the case at the ASU System,” said Welch. “In 5 years, our budget increase system wide has been 10.26% over those years; that is 2% a year. That is less than the inflationary rate. In fact, the system budget this year is actually less than it was last year.”
The Arkansas State University System comprises of the ASU System office in Little Rock, the A-State campus in Jonesboro, ASU-Newport campuses in Jonesboro, Newport, and Marked Tree, ASU-Mountain Home, ASU-Beebe and the new ASU-Mid South campus in West Memphis. He says the budget covers all of those campuses. Welch says he has been vocal in calling for higher education to receive a yearly increase in new money from the state, just like Kindergarten through 12th grade gets every year.
“In the last 5 years in the state of Arkansas, the amount of new money that has been given to higher education is 0.0%. In fact, higher education is dead last when you look at all of the state entities that received funding from the state. When that happens, unfortunately, tuition increases are the only option. We get 47% of our budget from general revenues and 49% from tuition increases and fees. That means that our students are fitting more of the bill than the state is.”
When the state legislature meets every two years to hammer out a budget, education funding for K-12 is considered a priority, due to the Lake View School case. The result of that case was that all K-12 schools must be funded adequately. He says that should be the case for higher education as well.
“Every year the state of Arkansas automatically puts 2.5% of new money into K-12 education to maintain adequacy. It is widely understood that if we want to have an adequate public school education, that they must have about 2.5% in new money every year. Here is the question I am asking: Why doesn’t that apply to us too? We have to have those conversations. I am proud K-12 gets it and I don’t doubt they need it. My point is we need it too. We can’t just shut it off at the 12th grade.”
Private money that is raised for the university goes into buildings, scholarships, and endowments. He says he will continue his push to get more money for higher education in legislative sessions. He also credited Governor Asa Hutchinson for not allowing any cuts in higher education funding during this year’s legislative session.
