Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

Outlook for Education in 2011

  • By Deb Moore
  • 01/01/11
Last week, 29 new governors took office. Their states, like most, are facing significant budget gaps despite that fact that revenues are expected to grow. Hard choices will need to be made and no one is exempt — including education.

According to the National Governor’s Association report, The Fiscal Survey of the States — December 2010, “After two of the most challenging years for state budgets, fiscal 2011 will present a slight improvement over fiscal 2010. However, even an improvement over one of the worst time periods in state fiscal conditions since the Great Depression states still forecast considerable fiscal stress.

Additionally, in fiscal 2012 a significant amount of state funding made available by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 will no longer be available. The significant wind down of this support will result in a continuation of extremely tight fiscal conditions for states and could lead to further state spending cuts.” The good news is that 35 states have enacted budgets with higher general fund spending compared to fiscal 2010. The not so good news is that 36 states still forecast lower general fund spending in fiscal 2011 compared to fiscal 2008.

So what does this mean for education? K-12 education funding is the states’ largest budget item, with higher education coming in third. In fiscal 2010, 35 states made mid-year program cuts to K-12 education totaling $5.4 million. Thirty-two states made cuts to higher education totaling $2.5 million. In fiscal 2011, the numbers were greatly improved with 13 states cutting K-12 funding ($1 million) and 10 states making cuts to higher education ($711,000). Add to that an end to federal stimulus funding for education, and in 2011, we are likely to see a loss of non-essential services and aggressive streamlining of others; a greater emphasis on group purchasing and outsourcing; school closures and consolidation; increases in tuition and fees; a reduction in the number of credit hours required for a degree; more dual enrollment programs; and a greater use of technology.

We all will need to do more with less in 2011 – be more creative, cling less to old ways. Change may be hard, but it is not always bad.

Featured

  • Spaces4Learning Announces 2026 Product Award Winners

    Spaces4Learning has just announced the winners of the 2026 Product Awards! The award program spotlights outstanding product development achievements of manufacturers and suppliers whose products or services are considered to be particularly noteworthy in their ability to enhance K–12 and higher-education learning environments.

  • Cleveland High School Breaks Ground on Modernization

    Portland Public Schools in Portland, Ore., recently announced that construction has begun on a modernization project for Cleveland High School, according to a news release. The existing building will be replaced with a new, 300,000-square-foot facility at the same site.

  • UT-San Antonio Begins Residence Hall Renovations

    The University of Texas at San Antonio recently began a $6-million renovation project to one of its residence halls, according to a news release. Originally completed in 1986, Chisolm Hall measures in at 120,860 square feet and is the oldest and largest residence hall on campus.

  • Tomball ISD Opens New Tomball West High School

    Tomball Independent School District in Tomball, Texas, recently celebrated the official opening of Tomball West High School, the district's third comprehensive high school, with a community ribbon-cutting ceremony, according to a district news release.