Recent Statewide Reforms in Higher Education Financing and Accountability: Emerging Lessons from the States

This paper examines reforms to historic approaches of paying for higher education in the states. Summaries of relevant recent reforms and financing approaches are included although this paper does not offer a complete history of higher education financing or every reform in every state. Rather the aim of the paper is to ascertain if there are any relevant lessons from other states that California can apply to its current higher education financing efforts.

Historically, financing higher education has been left primarily to the states. Although the federal government provides substantial funding to students through student aid programs, the federal government is not directly involved in how states organize or finance their higher education systems. Because states have substantial autonomy in higher education governance and finance there is wide variation in the states in both the level of support and the structure of higher education systems. However, despite their diversity states have faced similar problems recently because of declining state revenues and a need for greater higher education output to fuel the economies of the future. Recent statewide approaches to reforming both financing and performance in higher education are outlined in this paper with an eye to finding solutions to common problems.