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The Pros And Cons Of State Government Budgeting

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Even considering the numerous factors which contribute to the current state of

educational descent in America, current fallacies in the economic facets of educational policy are

strongly correlated to faults in the American education system. State government budgeting

constraints contribute to downward trends in academic funding and student financial aid, born of

a desire to alleviate taxation on the local populace and the presence of innumerable budget

pressure points which vie for limited funding. The financially exclusive nature of private

non­profit colleges and universities are characterized by an increase in net tuition and a shift in

the responsibility for college expenditures towards students and their families. The disparity …show more content…

One aspect of these aforementioned economic constraints, the state government, serves a

major role in the economics of education, providing both students and public academic

institutions financial aid in a manner which makes them heavily dependent upon state support.

Public academic institutions derive the majority of their funding from the state government;

community colleges depend on this source of funding even more so, due to their lack of varied

revenue sources. However, state financial aid for public higher education institutions has

declined steadily, even as student enrollment rates increase (The Economics of Higher

Education). The indirect correlation of these factors resulted in per­student funding reaching a

thirty­year low (Daniel). As a result of this decrease in state funding, college students were

forced to rely on federal loans for funding (McKinney). The burden of carrying a college loan is

addressed by Ms. Martinez, a college graduate student, who comments on recent changes in

higher education policy making the ability to pay back accumulating college loans an …show more content…

The constant strain on the state government to alleviate taxation, causing a diversion of

resources from academia, can be similarly considered a part of the gaping lacunae in academic

funding where governmental funding previously occupied (Hungerford).

Another factor of economic constraints contributing to decreasing American educational

standards lies in the financial policies of academic institutions as a self­sufficient body. The

acceptance standards held by the various higher education institutions of America rest heavily on

exclusive criterion, a great majority of which ties back to monetary hindrances on the attainment

of education and an overall decline in American education. The demographic of higher education

in America can be divided into three broad subgroups: private non­profit, public for­profit, and

public institutions. Private non­profit institutions are the most independent of government

funding out of each subgroup of academia, and typically include institutions which

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