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Written by John Farrar, the faculty senate president at Northern Kentucky University.
Why are Northern Kentucky University (NKU) and Western Kentucky University (WKU) students paying more in-state tuition than their peers? Answer: chronic underfunding of these institutions, compared to their peers, by the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
The Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education (CPE) recently approved its operating funds request for the 2024 to 2026 biennial budget. Rather than providing a remedy, this request perpetuates the inequity in funding for Northern Kentucky University, where I am Faculty Senate President, and Western Kentucky University, of which I am a graduate. This continued underfunding comes at a time of historic annual budget surpluses of $1 billion in Kentucky over the last three fiscal years. The “rainy day fund” is up to $3.7 billion and continues to grow. Shouldn’t Kentucky invest some of that surplus in its university students to remedy the funding inequity?
Until recently, across all public universities in Kentucky, state funding per student has had a downward trend for the last 25 years. A simple way to calculate state support across institutions is to compare the Kentucky general fund appropriations from the state per full-time equivalent (FTE) student. For example, NKU received $4800 per student in 1999, but only $4100 per student in 2016. More recently, NKU received about $4590 per student in 2022. Using inflation adjusted dollars, that $4800 in 1999 would be $8850 in 2023.
How does that impact NKU’s budget? In 1999, NKU received $32.3 million from Kentucky, which would be $59.6 million in 2023 when adjusted for inflation. Yet, NKU actually received $50.9 million before performance funding in 2023. Additionally, NKU serves approximately 40% more students in 2023 over 1999. As a result, the state share of the NKU budget has dropped from 40% in 1999 to around 20% in 2023. That’s a common and disappointing trend for the public universities in Kentucky.
For at least a decade, NKU and WKU have been underfunded when compared to other regional public universities in Kentucky. The data is clear. The average state base-funding appropriations per student for our peers in Kentucky (Eastern, Morehead, and Murray) is approximately $5314, while comparatively, WKU receives $5088 and NKU receives $4590. That’s a difference of $226 for WKU and $724 for NKU per student or considering the enrollment at our institutions, it’s a $3 million and $8 million gap, respectively.
How does that translate into student costs? The average in-state tuition at Eastern, Morehead, and Murray is $9445, while WKU students pay $10800 and NKU students pay $10296. NKU and WKU students pay about $1000 more in-state tuition compared to their peers. Yet, NKU was just designated as a “great value” by the Wall Street Journal, a recognition not shared by any of these other universities.
It would seem that the CPE would be working to address this inequity. They are certainly aware of the problem. The CPE budget request for 2024 and 2025 calls for a 9% and 12% funding increase over the budget biennium. The funding increase is both needed and welcome. However, the structure of the increase makes the situation worse for NKU and WKU students, not better. The gap between NKU and WKU with its peers actually increases by about $400 per student because their peer institutions stand to receive bigger increases.
NKU has been meeting the performance metrics set by the CPE. The performance funding model has a set of 11 metrics by which universities can earn additional state funding. Over the last few years, NKU has consistently met its goals on 7 to 8 of the 11 metrics, more than any other regional public university and second only to UK in the state. Surprisingly, that performance is not rewarded by additional funding in the CPE’s budget request. Shouldn’t performance be taken into account?
What am I proposing? NKU and WKU funding can’t come at the expense of Eastern, Morehead, and Murray. However, Kentucky needs to get serious about its future and sustainably fund higher education by increasing funding for all public universities. This is the bare minimum. Kentucky must fix the base funding for NKU and WKU before applying any percentage increase in funding. Bring the per student funding for NKU and WKU up to the average of Eastern, Morehead, and Murray. That is the only thing that is fair for all Kentucky students, and the cost is only $11 million, 0.3% of Kentucky’s rainy day fund.
Why are NKU and WKU students worth less to Kentucky? Why are they forced to pay more tuition? Aren’t they worth it?
John Farrar has taught in higher education since 1999 and is currently a faculty member at Northern Kentucky University, where he serves as the Faculty Senate President. He resides in Alexandria, KY. He is a graduate of Western Kentucky University (1992) and Williamsburg (KY) High School (1988).
