The Arizona Board of Regents is asking the state for an additional $732 million to finance public universities. The board says the money is necessary to maintain programs following prior cuts.
ABOR is asking for the new funds to come from taxpayers instead of raising tuition. It would be a 75% increase from current state funding.
In 2008, state funds covered a third of operating budgets for public universities. As of this year, it covers 12%.
Regent Fred DuVal said the new funding is necessary due to cuts the board has already had to make to programs, such as the Arizona Teachers Academy.
Republican Sen. John Kavanaugh, chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, says no organization is going to be able to get additional funding due to tax collection estimates for the coming fiscal year.
But regardless of the state's overall financial situation, the Fountain Hills Republican who has been in the Legislature since 2007, said he thinks the university system is getting what it needs from state taxpayers. And he said that for a large share of Arizonans, higher education remains quite affordable — and free for many.
That affordability, however, is not due to state aid, which has been decreasing for decades.
Instead, universities, facing years of cuts in public dollars, are making up the difference by recruiting more out-of-state students who pay three times as much as Arizona residents. And they now make up 51% of those enrolled, double what it was two decades ago.