The South Carolina General Assembly convened on Tuesday, January 12. Foremost on its agenda is developing a state budget for FY 2010-2011 amid steadily declining revenues. Since the start of the fiscal year on July 1, the Budget and Control Board has cut $438.5 million from the state’s budget, and has used a $120 million reserve fund. Aggregate cuts of 24% during the past 18 months—more than $1.6 billion—have reduced state spending to 2004 levels.
The needs-based Higher Education Tuition Grants and merit-based scholarships like the Palmetto Fellows, LIFE, and HOPE are some of the very few programs to escape the budget knife. State funding has remained constant for the past three years as legislators have made every effort to shore up the increasing cost of providing grants and scholarships to all eligible students.
In spite of level-funding, awards for recipients of Tuition Grants were reduced by 11.1% this year because of an unprecedented increase in the number of eligible students. Lottery funds can no longer sustain a growing merit scholarship program which last year received $83 million in state appropriations to supplement $123.4 million in lottery revenue. Lawmakers and budget officials are beginning to question whether they can continue the open-ended funding of student scholarship programs in light of the severity of the state revenue shortfall.
The budget process for higher education began this week when the Higher Education Subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee met with the directors of the Higher Education Tuition Grants Commission and the Higher Education Commission. Both groups will urged the subcommittee not to retreat from current scholarship and grant funding levels because of the additional burdens any reduction will place on students and their parents.
SCICU sent a letter of support for level-funding and restoration of monies to fund the Partner Among South Carolina’s Academic Libraries (PASCAL) to members of the Higher Education Subcommittee and other members of the General Assembly. Soon, students and parents will be sending letters of support to their representatives and senators as part of a SCICU initiative that uses coordinators on each campus to organize letter writing campaigns.
We ask that supporters of independent higher education in South Carolina write or call members of the South Carolina House and Senate to emphasize the importance of providing students with grants and scholarships to allow them to pursue higher education. The Public Policy section on the SCICU web site provides the resources necessary to make your thoughts known to our state elected officials.
