TBR Weighing Tuition Hikes Against Budget Cuts

The Tennessee Board of Regents is trying to craft a mixture of tuition hikes and possibly budget cuts to make up for its shrinking state funding. TBR is headed into its third straight year getting less money from the state, and expects by next year those cuts will add up to more than 25 percent lost.

For universities to replace all the state money TBR is losing, it would take a 10 percent tuition hike this year, and next – and still more at community colleges and tech centers.

Any smaller tuition increase means having to trim budgets. TBR Chancellor Charles Manning:

“Students pay one way or another – they pay with the higher price or they pay with the lessened amount of money that we really have available to spend on them.”

The Board’s current projections assume state funding will drop by 6 percent next year.

They also assume the governor’s proposed tax increase won’t be passed by the legislature. Without that additional tax on certain items over $3,200, TBR would face another 3 percent cut the following year.

TBR officials expect to make a final vote on their budget at the end of June.

WEB EXTRA:

TBR officials say their universities are already running more efficiently than many similar schools, doing comparable work with an average of 13 percent less money.

FTE stands for full-time equivalent; it’s used as a unit of measure for work done in higher education.

You can view the entire presentation here (pdf). Details on the aforementioned peer comparison, including a breakdown for each university, fall from pages 6 to 18.

All slides courtesy the Tennessee Board of Regents.

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