The state higher education commission wants an extra $100 million next year, in part to boost financial aid for needy students and increase the stipend state residents get for college.
The presidents of Colorado’s colleges and universities want that and more – and one by one Thursday, they pitched their plans to the legislature’s Joint Budget Committee.
The all-day hearing was the latest round in college leaders’ battle against one another to win a bigger slice of funding. It came after a recent study showing Colorado is $832 million behind its peers in funding higher education.
Lawmakers said they are fed up with a system that pits school against school. Some said the state is likely to fund only about half of the Colorado Commission on Higher Education’s request.
“If I sound angry, it is because I am angry,” Rep. Bernie Buescher, D-Grand Junction, told commission executive director Jenna Langer. “You need to pound the heads to make sure that they do come to a consensus.”
Several lawmakers and college officials said the state needs a clear-cut formula for handing out money to schools because current policy is inconsistent and vulnerable to political whims.
University of Northern Colorado president Kay Norton said she was sick of feeling obligated to “staff up” and lobby lawmakers for the “annual free- for-all.”
“We end up scrapping over the pie as is, as opposed to thinking about how we make the pie bigger,” she said.
But coming up with a funding model that would equally please community colleges, four-year state schools and research universities is nearly impossible.
The University of Colorado, Colorado State University and Colorado School of Mines are fighting for a formula that would distribute money based on the cost of degree programs. It costs more to teach engineering and upper-division science than history, those schools argue.
But officials at community colleges and four-year colleges counter that they can’t raise tuition or attract big donors like research universities can. They have to keep tuition low or their students won’t come.
The higher education commissioner suggested state officials develop a model during the next year, warning lawmakers that each college will produce a formula that benefits them.
Among the requests at the hearing was a $3.8 million plea from Metropolitan State College of Denver to hire more full-time professors and put students in learning-community cohorts.
Western State College in Gunnison wants $1.1 million, including $100,000 for need-based scholarships.
CSU president Larry Penley asked for $5 million for the university’s biomedical and teaching hospital. He also wants permission to raise tuition up to 14 percent – twice the 7 percent limit proposed by the higher education commission.
And community college system president Nancy McCallin requested $6.6 million for her rural schools, which are subsidized by urban colleges.
Staff writer Jennifer Brown can be reached at 303-954-1593 or jenbrown@denverpost.com.
