Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

Who’s the Skinflint Now?

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by

James A. Bacon
in

Click on the chart to see how Virginia ranks compared to the other 50 states.

One trick used by the higher ed lobby to extract more money from Virginia taxpayers is to show what skinflints legislators are in the Old Dominion compared to the solons of other states who provide far more state support for their colleges and university. While this chart does not tell the whole story — it does not show absolute levels of spending — it does suggest that Virginia has cut higher ed spending far less since the 2007-2008 recession than most other states.

Source: “Report of the State Budget Crisis Task Force.”

— JAB

Special thanks to criminal defense lawyer, Nicole Naum for supporting Bacon’s Rebellion.

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Comments

  1. reed fawell Avatar
    reed fawell

    Gentlemen – the Party is Over.

  2. DJRippert Avatar
    DJRippert

    Once again, North Carolina shows the way. I’d like to outsource the governance of Virginia to the state legislature in North Carolina. God knows, The Imperial Clown Show in Richmond has been going in the wrong direction for decades.

  3. larryg Avatar
    larryg

    this is higher ed…. so NC is what, increasing allocations? Without knowing
    what the baseline numbers were, it’s hard to know if NC is catching up or forging ahead, eh?

  4. James A. Bacon Avatar
    James A. Bacon

    I’m pretty sure NC spends more per student on average than Virginia, by a fairly substantial margin. According to this chart, it is one of the handful of states that managed to increase spending since the recession, thus widening its margin with Virginia.

    On the other hand, I have seen no evidence to suggest that NC has done any more than VA to deal with the root causes of runaway higher ed inflation. To the extent that it has increased its subsidies, it has masked the problem rather than dealt with it.

  5. TMT Avatar
    TMT

    North Carolina does spend more tax dollars on higher education than does Virginia. My daughter pays a lower out-state premium at NC State than an non-Virginia resident does at a Virginia school. I like the set-up.

  6. larryg Avatar
    larryg

    ” I like the set-up.” you mean NC taxpayers subsidizing your tuition costs?

    🙂

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