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Grand Rapids Community College urges action on unequal state community college funding
Summary
Lisa Freiberger, interim president of Grand Rapids Community College, told the subcommittee that per-student state operational allocations vary widely across Michigan community colleges and asked legislators to consider establishing a funding floor to reduce inequities.
Lisa Freiberger, interim president of Grand Rapids Community College, told the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Higher Education and Community Colleges that the current state operational funding formula for community colleges perpetuates large per-student funding disparities and recommended consideration of a funding floor.
"We are really seeking some attention to that base funding allocation and potentially some, consideration about providing some additional equity throughout that funding system," Freiberger said, describing data the college provided to the committee.
Freiberger said Grand Rapids Community College serves more than 12,000 credit-seeking students and approximately 15,000 additional students in noncredit, apprenticeship and customized training programs. She described the gap between the highest- and lowest-funded community colleges under the existing allocation formula: she said the highest-funded community college (Gogebic) received about $9,433 per student in the example year shown, the statewide average was $4,290 per student, the lowest-funded community college (Washtenaw) received about $2,100 per student, and Grand Rapids received about $2,723 per student.
Freiberger explained that the operational allocation formula has a component that allocates new or additional operational dollars based partly (30%) on prior-year state aid, which she said compounds inequities. She said the college is not proposing reallocation of existing dollars away from other colleges but instead proposed establishing a funding floor (possibly phased in over multiple years) so no community college receives less than that minimum level.
When Representative Rogers asked whether the presenter had prepared fiscal estimates for various floor options, Freiberger said she had run scenarios and that the fiscal impact depends on the floor selected; she offered an example that a $3,500 floor would likely require phasing in over five to 10 years and would amount to multiple millions of dollars per year.
Freiberger said the four-year institutions previously had a funding floor established and suggested applying a similar approach to community colleges to address the compounding inequity created by the current formula. Committee members responded with interest in further conversation and potential committee follow-up.
