One-Third, One-Third, One-Third

"I'm in one of the states in which the statutory obligation for community college funding spells out that one-third of the operating budget should come from the state, one-third from the sponsoring county or counties, and one-third from tuition. New Jersey had that, too. (Massachusetts doesn't have county funding at all.) In neither case has reality come anywhere close to what the law specifies."

"When I was at Brookdale, the county allocation hovered around 25 percent, and the state around 10. Other than a bit from auxiliary revenues, the rest was covered by students. Here, the state gets reasonably close, but the counties collectively total about 4 percent, and one of them is talking about reducing some more. The shortfalls have happened over decades, under governors of both parties."

Statutory obligations in some states require community college operating budgets to be split one-third from the state, one-third from sponsoring counties, and one-third from tuition. Those splits are frequently unmet in practice. At one college, the county allocation hovered around 25 percent and state support about 10 percent, leaving students to cover most remaining costs. In another instance, counties collectively contributed about 4 percent with potential further reductions. Shortfalls have accumulated over decades under governors of both parties. Funding shortfalls have become normalized and are often effectively ignored despite being technically illegal.

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