State earns high returns on its investment in private colleges
The phrase “return on investment” has been heard frequently as the Minnesota Legislature hammers out our state’s budget. Taxpayers, many of whom are experiencing their own budget crises, are more interested than ever in how the state appropriates their tax dollars.
In fiscal year 2007-2008, the state appropriated $1.44 billion to postsecondary institutions in the form of institutional subsidies and Minnesota State Grant dollars. One measure of return on this large investment is how many bachelor’s degrees were awarded at each of our postsecondary institutions, compared to the dollars received from the higher education budget.
The University of Minnesota received almost half (47 percent) of the budget. This $711 million investment led to 8,984 bachelor’s degrees in 2007-2008. This represents 29 percent of the total number of bachelor’s degrees granted in Minnesota for that year. Minnesota’s State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU) showed a similar pattern, receiving over $665 million (46 percent of the budget) and awarding 9,713 bachelor’s degrees, or nearly one-third of those in the state.
The 17 institutions of the Minnesota Private College Council received two percent of the budget, yet they also awarded 9,140 bachelor’s degrees — nearly one-third of the state’s total. This number is slightly more than the University of Minnesota and very close to the total for MnSCU. Return on investment is high at Minnesota’s Private Colleges. Assisting our students with State Grant dollars is a wise investment that benefits taxpayers and educates our state’s future workforce. [Other private colleges, both for-profit and not-for-profit, received two percent of the budget and awarded just over 10 percent of the bachelor’s degrees.]