Socio-Economic Makeup of States Affects Higher Ed Funding

By Julia Lawrence. A new report from Demos, a national policy and research organization, looks at how various complex economic, political and sociological factors combine to determine how states allocate their higher education funding. The report’s authors look at how these cultural dynamics drive lawmakers to either invest intelligently or foolishly and set the pattern that will influence higher ed funding decisions for decades to come. David Weerts, the lead author, explains that those who look to the report – titled  College Funding in Context: Understanding the Difference in Higher Education Appropriations across the States – for answers to the questions plaguing the public higher education systems in the country will be disappointed. Rather, the findings should be used to define rather than solve the problem – how population age, economics and even tax policies come together to push lawmakers to set either high or low priority on higher education in their states. Read more...