News
California budget proposal cuts university funding by $200 million
In short
The latest version of the budget cuts funding by $200 million for the state’s two public university systems.
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Chalk it up to the California dream: Not even three years ago, Gov. Gavin Newsom promised California’s public universities five years of annual growth in state support totaling more than $2 billion.
But the governor’s updated budget plan for next year aims instead to cut the University of California and California State University by a combined total of $200 million in response to the crisis. state project with multibillion-dollar budget deficit.
The five-year pact risks turning into a more humble two-year commitment, underscoring the difficulty of projecting several years of support for California’s top bachelor generators — a state particularly at the mercy of wild revenue swings.
UC would see a base funding cut of $125 million in 2024-25, with plans to restore that drop in 2025-26. For Cal State, the governor’s May budget review includes a $75 million cut that will be restored in 2025-26.
The numbers were shared with CalMatters after it sought more details from the California Department of Finance about its higher education plans that are part of the annual May review process. It is an update to the governor’s initial proposal from January and sets the stage for intense budget negotiations with the Legislature to finalize a State’s budget at the end of June. The 2024-25 budget year begins July 1.
Fiscal prospects become modestly more optimistic later for the two systems, which together manage 33 universities enrolling around 750,000 students.
Each system would receive a modest 2.05% increase in 2025-26 — a far cry from the 10% the governor projected in his January budget proposal. That 10% in itself was a commitment. Each system was supposed to see a 5% increase in 2024-25 and the same in 2025-26. But in January, Newsom called for no increase in the first year and for the amount to be doubled in the second year as a way to manage the state deficit.
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That 10% for both systems would mean a combined billion dollars in 2025-26, according to the Legislative Analyst’s Office. An increase of just 2% would total about $200 million.
The analyst’s office basically presaged a change in fortunes for universities. When Newsom unveiled his compact plan in 2022, a promise of increased spending in exchange for improvements in students’ academic studies, the office wrote: “We caution the Legislature against placing too much stock in the Governor’s annual commitments to universities.” Previous governors rarely “managed to sustain their pacts over time,” the office noted.
One reason? “In some cases, changes in economic and fiscal conditions in the state led governors to suspend their pacts,” the office then wrote.
Whether lawmakers will fight to restore these cuts is an open question. More money for campuses means they can afford to hire more teachers and offer more of the classes students need to graduate. The additional state support is also a particular lifeline for Cal State, which agreed to 5% raises for its roughly 60,000 union workers, including the almost 30,000 teachers who went on strike at the end of last year and at the beginning of this year demanding salary and benefit gains.
But a dollar spent in one place means it isn’t spent elsewhere, and the governor also proposes using his budget scythe on financial aid to students. Under his May review, the middle-class scholarship would decrease by more than $500 million, to $100 million. each of the next two years.
UC would see a $125 million cut in 2024-25. For Cal State, the May budget review includes a $75 million cut.
Around 300,000 students received this award this year, with average values between US$2,000 and US$3,000. If the governor’s plan becomes law, these values can decrease by 80% on average.
A higher education watchdog fears cuts and limited growth will hit low-income students hardest.
“With this funding being cut, I think it will take a real, concerted effort over several years to ensure that these students are brought back to higher education and have the support they need over several years to actually reach graduation. ,” said Joshua Hagen, director of policy and advocacy at the Campaign for College Opportunity, a nonprofit advocacy group.
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