Oakland University Takes Aim At Michigan’s Higher Education Funding Gap
Oakland University gets $3,000 per student in state funding, a third of what the university at the top of that list receives. OU’s president says funding is a reflection of our values.
Most states spend about 10 percent of their overall budget on public colleges and universities. Michigan spends less than half of that: four percent.
But the funding picture gets even more complicated when you consider the fact that the amount of money each school gets per student varies wildly.
“Higher education is correlated with the health of our citizens and the health of our economy. It’s part of our values system.” – Oakland University President Ora Hirsch Pescovitz
Wayne State University gets the most funding per-student at $9000. Oakland University is at the bottom. It gets just a third of that amount per-student at $3000.
On Wednesday, OU kicked off a new campaign to lobby state lawmakers to even out that funding gap. It is calling for a funding floor of $4500.
Listen: Oakland University President Ora Hirsch Pescovitz on boosting state funding for higher education.
Guest
Ora Hirsch Pescovitz is the president of Oakland University, and is leading the university’s “Strive for 45” initiative.
“We’re just suggesting that we go back 20 years ago to the proposed funding floor of $4,500” per-student, says Pescovitz on Detroit Today with Stephen Henderson.
“We know that higher education is directly correlated with the health of our citizens and, very importantly with the health of our economy and economic prosperity. It’s part of our values system,” she continues. In Michigan, we spend more on our corrections budget than our higher education budget. If we’re going to look at one set of values, I’d suggest we consider that.”
