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The cost of higher education is a controversial topic on the minds of many Americans, particularly this election season. Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton has proposed a plan that would help low-income families pay for college, but recent grads are currently struggling under $1.2 trillon of collective debt.
Considering this massive amount of student debt, one might believe that states are not financially supporting higher education. StartClass, an education research site powered by Graphiq, wanted to find out how much money states are allocating for higher education, and where the funds are coming from.
Each year, the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association heads the State Higher Education Finance program, which delves into funding used to support higher education. By analyzing the SHEF report from 2015, StartClass ranked all 50 states, plus Washington, D.C., by how much each state spends on an individual student for higher education. According to SHEF, this funding comes from a variety of sources including state and local revenue from taxes, lottery receipts, royalty revenue, and state-funded endowments.
All 50 states, including Washington D.C., spend at least $2,900 per student for higher education. But this is far from the whole picture. StartClass took a step further also included the percentage of total revenue allocated directly to the student. For example, Wyoming spent $15,135 per student on higher education in 2015, a very high number compared with other states. However, this amount was only 15 percent of Wyoming's total education revenue available in 2015.
Some states spent over 70 percent of their education revenue on students — one state reached 85 percent in 2015.
Most would agree that states should do more to help citizens afford higher education, but in cases where the state is already spending 70 to 85 percent of their education revenue on students, it's challenging to figure out how to procure more funding.
Annual funding per student ranges from $2,904 to $17,487 — is your state allocating educational funding fairly?
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