State spending on higher education remains well below pre-recession levels

State spending on higher education remains well below pre-recession levels and some states have kept the cuts coming, according to a new report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Every state except Alaska and North Dakota spends less per student than before the recession hit, the report says. State higher education spending is down about 23 percent, amounting to just a little over $2,000 per student.
Louisiana, North Carolina, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming made the deepest cuts this year, the report says. Per student spending in Louisiana is down by more than 40 percent while tuition increased.
Thirty-seven states cut per-student funding by more than 20 percent and nine states cut per-student funding by more than one-third.
“The large funding cuts have led to both steep tuition increases and spending cuts that may diminish the quality of education available to students at a time when a highly educated workforce is more crucial than ever to the nation’s economic future,” the report says.

Florida, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Montana and Washington have all increased higher education funding over the last school year, though spending is still less than before the recession.