The funding trend…

The higher education appropriation set this morning by JFAC, $209.8 million in state general funds, is the lowest in 11 years, when the fiscal year 2000 appropriation was $202 million. Twenty-one years ago, in 1990, the state’s appropriation for colleges and universities was 14.9 percent of the general fund; this year, in 2011, it’s just 9.1 percent. In that same time period, the public schools appropriation has dropped but come back up to 51 percent of the state general fund, the same mark it hit in 1990; while Health & Welfare costs have jumped from 13.1 percent in 1990 to 18.3 percent in 2011, and adult and juvenile corrections have grown from 3.2 percent to 7.6 percent. You can see all the numbers here on the historical trends.