Top Ohio higher-education programs cut from budget

COLUMBUS (AP) — Two premier higher-education programs highly touted by state leaders as evidence of their commitment to affordability and keeping more graduates in Ohio fell prey to state budget cuts.

A two-year tuition freeze at public universities, which Gov. Ted Strickland wanted to continue for a third year, was ended to allow institutions to raise tuition by 3.5 percent each of the next two years. And the first $100 million of a five-year, $250 million program to give Ohio college students more opportunities to work at local businesses didn’t make it into the budget Strickland signed Friday.

The cuts make it more difficult for the state to achieve some of the goals outlined in a 10-year plan for education, including raising state aid per student to the national average and keeping more graduates in state to relieve a notorious “brain drain” phenomenon.

The internship and cooperative program was part of a $1.6 billion state-level economic-stimulus package lawmakers approved in 2008 and said would help lead to economic recovery.

In January, a Strickland spokesman said the governor was “fully committed to spending the entirety” of the package.

When lawmakers ran up against a $3.2 billion budget deficit just weeks before the start of the new fiscal year July 1, all funding priorities were reconsidered. Cutting the internship program and state aid to higher education gave lawmakers $270 million more to put toward other programs.

About 35 states have cut funding for higher education in their latest budgets, said Terry Hartle, senior vice president at the American Council on Education, a lobbying organization in Washington. Most observers expect increases in California to be at least 10 percent.

“State governments tend to treat public colleges and universities pretty well when budgets are stable but tend to treat it pretty badly when budgets are suffering,” Hartle said.

Ohio’s strategic education plan calls for doubling the number of students in internships and co-ops with Ohio companies to 100,000 by 2017. It also calls for state support per student to reach the national average within the next 10 years. In 2006, Ohio was ranked 39th in state support per student — $420 million short of the average.