Reply to State report says 7 Virginia universities should be monitored as enrollment cliff approaches

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]VSU is owed over $277 million in state funding from 1987 to 2020.

Maybe they had some extra per pupil in recent years but that doesn’t cover the huge gap.

And VSU is 1/6th the size of VT. Many expenses aren’t linear. 
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The Federal data behind this claim is wrong.  It is from a database called IPEDS, which is data provided by the institutions, but not checked and often entered incorrectly or inconsistently, leading to errors.

The Virginia budget and its line items are public record, including those for Virginia State and Virginia Tech general fund appropriations, which is what is relevant here.  The number of Full Time Equivalent students is tracked by the State Council on Higher Education.  As you can see this data is combined in a report on the SCHEV website.  You can see from the online report for the budget years 2009-2010 to 2022-2023, the state appropriated $150,058 per in-state FTE for Virginia State vs. $100,867 for Virginia Tech.

https://research.schev.edu/rdPage.aspx?finance&rdReport=finance.FP01_Report[/quote]

While there are some issues with IPEDS, nothing indicates that the federal data is wrong.

Choosing to focus on one line item in recent years doesn’t tell the whole story. Facilities funding. Matching for USDA funding. Adjusting for the Pell status or tuition levels. When you look at the bigger picture, VSU has been historically underfunded, as many HBCUs have been.

It’s great that the state has started to invest in facilities recently. Given how far behind they are hopefully VA continues to address the inequality. 
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The General Fund appropriation is the operating money coming from the state.  It is a line in the state budget, not in IPEDS, and is the appropriate way answer the simple question of which school is receiving more funding per student from the state.

I am not saying it is that simple and there are no other questions and issues.  I am fully aware that Virginia State has complex challenges.  This may in part be due to historical funding, but there are likely other factors in play that should be considered.  The issue in the financial comparison with Virginia Tech is that Virginia Tech has much higher capacity to get revenue from sources other than the state (tuition net of financial aid, research, private funds) than Virginia State.   The budget shows that the state funds some schools with roles and requirements that require additional support (Norfolk State, Virginia State, UVA Wise) at a higher level than average.  That doesn't mean there isn't a legitimate question as to whether the state should fund more or make other changes.[/quote]

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