On October 29, the Governor announced mid-year cuts to many areas of state government. Funding for state and community colleges and the University of Massachusetts is being reduced by $62 million, but that funding will be replaced by the use of federal fiscal stimulus funds. While this sounds good, there are still big problems, including:
1. A lot of salaries previously paid from state funds will now be paid from federal funds. This means the campuses have to pay the cost of fringe benefits (about 25%).
2. The federal stimulus funds are only available this year, so higher ed will start off in a very big hole next year. It will be up to all of us to advocate for both state and additional federal resources for next year and beyond.
See a more detailed explanation of the 9C cuts here.
See an important article about the privatization trends in public higher education in The New York Times. PHENOM will soon be launching a major new multi-year campaign to reverse this trend toward privatization and bring Massachusetts up to the national average in state support and down to the average in net cost to students.
Please RSVP to massphenom@gmail.com if you can attend the next big statewide PHENOM meeting December 3, 6-8 PM, at Worcester State College, where we will discuss this campaign in detail.