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Concerned About Cuts to CICS Grant Program
By Judith Greiman
On behalf of the member institutions of the Connecticut Conference of Independent Colleges (CCIC), I must express my deepest disappointment and concern about the proposed budget cut to the Connecticut Independent College Student (CICS) Grant Program. This proposal, which would institute a $3.7 million or 24% reduction in funding to needy Connecticut students, is a shortsighted attempt to address our state’s budget constraints because it will ultimately cost the state more.
The economics of this cut are not sensible, as CICS grants actually save money for Connecticut. The truth is that Connecticut’s independent colleges and universities award 52% of the degrees at an average cost to the state per four-year degree of only $1,278—while each degree awarded by a public institution costs the state $38,549. Additionally, each CICS dollar saves the state more than one dollar in expenses that would be incurred if the same student attended a public college. In FY 2001, the average CICS grant was $3,956 and, based on the grant formula, state support per student at the University of Connecticut was $14,970. This results in savings to Connecticut of $11,014 per student. This cost data coupled with the successful four-year graduation rates of CCIC institutions as compared to significantly lower rates at the public colleges and universities truly raises the question: Why not continue to fund the program that economically and effectively graduates such a large proportion of Connecticut’s workforce?
With an average grant of $3,956, this cut is equivalent to about 935 grants in addition to the 700 equivalent grants that were cut last year. Connecticut’s independent colleges and universities are already putting over $230 million of institutional funds into financial aid. With their expenses rising, endowments softening due to market changes, and numbers of students eligible for need-based aid increasing, it will be very difficult for most colleges to find funding to make up for this cut. Clearly, CICS recipients will struggle to decide what to do in the face of a cut. Some students will choose to leave the state to attend college, thereby depriving Connecticut of talent for our future workforce. Others will seek to attend a lower cost public college or university, no longer taking into account whether or not that institution adequately meets their individual needs. Still others will put their college dreams on hold, limiting their individual growth as well as the state’s economic growth.
We understand that in today's economy, the relationship between income and employment and educational attainment has strengthened, such that higher education is far more important to the economic welfare of individuals than it has ever been. Yet, qualified low-income students attend four-year institutions at half the rate of their comparably qualified higher-income peers. We must not make shortsighted economic decisions that falsely alleviate the state’s budget constraints and further limit student success or the growth of Connecticut’s educated and tax-paying workforce.
Judith Greiman is President of the Connecticut Conference of Independent Colleges.
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