HARTFORD, CONN(WTIC Radio)-Higher education officials are sounding the alarm over the proposed state budget, warning it will cause layoffs and tuition increases. But Budget Chief Jeffrey Beckham counters that saying the Governor's proposal provides $334 million more in spending, including a 27 percent in baseline appropriations and a 55 percent increase in total state funding.
At a Hartford Press conference, Connecticut State Colleges and Universities President Terrence Cheng said the budget could include more than 650-full-time faculty and staff layoffs and nearly 3, thousand part-time positions eliminated and tuition increases at community colleges and universities.
“The proposed state budget would harm students, the state's workforce, and communities,” President Cheng said. “CSCU is an incredible system with amazing institutions that are the lifeblood of the communities they serve. We serve students from each of Connecticut’s 169 cities and towns with locations providing access in every corner of the state and online. We are an inclusive system, providing opportunities for some of the most socioeconomically disadvantaged students in the state to pursue higher education and create social mobility for themselves and their families. We are the state’s most important workforce pipeline with in-demand programs in everything from nursing and allied health, to bioscience and innovation, to IT and computer engineering, to business and manufacturing. Our students are Connecticut residents, and they stay here to live and work. This would all be at risk without adequate state funding.”
As it is currently proposed, the state budget would leave CSCU with a projected $335.1 budget deficit over the 2024-25 biennium.
“We understand the need for fiscal restraint,” President Cheng continued. “But it should never come at the expense of opportunity for our most disadvantaged students – especially at a time when our state’s resources are more than sufficient to address students’ needs.”
Beckham responded, “In addition, the Governor has proposed shifting the unfunded legacy costs over to the state – a long standing issue raised by higher education institutions as a source of fiscal strain. CSCU’s request for additional funding appears to be based on a belief that one-time federal funding to compensate for COVID-related costs should continue in perpetuity.
“Simply asking for ever-increasing operating subsidies is not sustainable. Before looking to the taxpayers and students for additional funding, they must get their costs under control and in line with the current and expected future demand for students, which has decreased by 36 percent in the community colleges and 21 percent at the regional state universities. The students and taxpayers deserve value for their dollar, it is apparent that the CSCU administration needs to do more to assure that value.”
