James C. Hearn

Partisans, Professionals, and Power: The Role of Political Factors in State Higher Education Funding

Despite real growth in total appropriations of state tax funds for postsecondary operating expenses, state investment in higher education has substantially declined in recent years relative to changes in enrollment, state wealth, and the growth of institutional budgets. What factors are associated with state investment in higher education over time? In this paper, we report the results of a longitudinal analysis of factors associated with state funding effort for higher education. Using a panel data set and a fixed-effects analysis that we conducted on the drivers of state appropriations to higher education from 1984 to 2004, we find that population, postsecondary enrollment patterns, and economic conditions affect funding levels. Our analysis also points, however, to political influences shaping public choice. Notably, we find strong empirical evidence that partisanship, legislative professionalism, term limits, interest groups, and gubernatorial power influence appropriations levels. Less than a decade ago, the evidence for these kinds of relationships was tenuous; today, the empirical record has accumulated in support of the claim that politics “matters” in helping shape public choice for higher education. We explore some of the implications of these relationships, both for scholarship and for policy making in the states.

Enrollment Effects of Alternative Postsecondary Pricing Policies.

The last few years have been marked by heightened public debate over the financing of postsecondary education in the United States [6, 7, 22, 29]. Many states and the federal government have begun to reexamine how public resources should be used to subsidize education. The primary impetus for these deliberations has been pragmatism. The obvious constraints on public resources in an era of enduring economic malaise, the increasing costs of providing basic postsecondary services, and the daunting price tags attached to maintaining quality education in a technological age have made it virtually imperative to reexamine current approaches. Necessarily, however, long-disputed, more fundamental, and less pragmatic issues of public policy have come to play an important part: what are the societal benefits of higher education for individuals? How are public subsidies best employed to achieve the goals of equity and efficiency in education? The controversy has been evident at both the federal and the state levels. One significant aspect at the federal level has been the percep-

Wise Moves in Hard Times: Creating and Managing Resilient Colleges and Universities

Part One: Hard Times 1. Common Lessons from Hard Times 2. Sources of Stress 3. Impact of Stress Part Two: Searching for Solutions 4. Mission and Organization 5. Decisions and Conflict 6. Teaching and Learning in a New Era Part Three: Wise Moves 7. Analyzing the Institutions Condition 8. Triage 9. Strategy and Realism: Promoting Enlightened Change 10. Resilience in Times of Fiscal Stress 11. Unfinished Business

Impacts of Undergraduate Experiences on Aspirations and Plans for Graduate and Professional Education.

This paper describes a longitudinal path-analytic study of influences upon educational aspirations and plans for graduate and professional schooling among 418 undergraduates at two U.S. universities. The analysis suggests that academic performance, parental supportiveness, faculty-student interaction, and major department context played significant roles in outcomes, beyond the role played by freshman-year background characteristics. There were some differences in the results for men and women, suggesting further attention to gender differences in postcollege educational attainment processes. Overall, the analysis suggests that greater attention to subenvironments, such as major departments, may be warranted in studies of this kind.

Efficiency and Equity Effects of Vocationally Focused Postsecondary Education

Two rationales have been used to support governmental funding of postsecondary vocational education: an efficiency rationale and an equity rationale. Research on the effects of this public investment, and thus on the defensibility of these rationales, has often been hampered by inadequate data and other limitations. The analysis presented in this article used the nationally representative High School and Beyond data set to investigate the distinctive role of postsecondary vocational education in affecting the earnings, employment, and socioeconomic mobility of the nations high school graduates of 1980. The results suggest that postsecondary vocational education does, indeed, have significant positive effects on individual economic outcomes, but those effects are not found among all who are targeted by the equity rationale. In particular, men from lower socioeconomic backgrounds do not appear to benefit appreciably. The analysis, however, provides striking support for the equity rationale as it applies to women.

Introduction: The Politics of Higher Education

Now, 30 years later, the same assessment can still be made: As a subject of social scientific inquiry, politics of higher education research remains in a state of perpetual infancy, prone to periodic lurches but lacking in sustained and systematic conceptualization and analysis. That politics of higher education scholarship should remain so scattered and irregular is somewhat curious given the richness of the parent political science discipline and the rather steady advances of K-12 specialists in developing a politics of education literature in their own field. This 2003 edition of the Politics of Education Association Yearbook and special issue of Educational Policy represent an effort to invigorate politics of higher education scholarship, an important but longneglected area of inquiry likely to be of interest to many social scientists, particularly higher education researchers.

Determinants of Postsecondary Education Attendance: Some Implications of Alternative Specifications of Enrollment

This paper proposes four defensible alternative definitions of “postsecondary education attendance,” then uses data for 1980 high school seniors to examine influences on attendance under each of the definitions. The results suggest that these influences vary somewhat, depending upon the enrollment definition one chooses. For example, the findings suggest that studies focusing solely upon a traditional definition of enrollment (e.g., entry into a two- or four-year institution immediately after high school graduation) may overstate the limiting effects of socioeconomic factors on overall enrollment, and may also understate the positive effects of being female. Some policy studies make recommendations on the basis of analysis using traditional enrollment definitions, even though such definitions are much more restricted than those of the major financial aid programs (e.g., the Federal Pell Grant program). The findings of the present study suggest that such studies may misspecify policy impacts. The implications of these results are discussed.

Origins of Academic Freedom Litigation.

Institutional differentiation and political conceptualizations of organizational processes framed this investigation of factors influencing faculty reliance on litigation to resolve disputes involving academic freedom. This study of selected court cases suggests that such litigation is more likely to originate from public multiversities and comprehensives and among faculty in the humanities and social sciences, implying that academic units with greater organizational ambiguity are most likely to generate litigation related to academic freedom.

Financing Institutional Operations: The Entrepreneurial Leader

This unique volume discusses the management of transformational change in higher education as a key element of success. With input from researchers, presidents, provosts, and other senior leaders of the higher education community, this edited volume explores transformational change in a range of institutions from small teaching and community colleges to large comprehensive research universities.

Sunshine Laws in Higher Education

About State Policy Briefs: AGB periodically publishes informal papers on timely topics that reflect best policies and practices in state government’s relationship with public and independent colleges and universities. The papers are intended for governors, state legislators, and their staffs as well as organizations concerned about effective public policy. For more information about, visit AGB.org.