Close but few cutbacks- Higher education budget survives
by JORDAN BLUM - Advocate (excerpt)

More than halfway through the legislative session, higher education funding has survived without significant budget cuts this year, college officials said. Higher education leaders had originally feared this summer would represent the funding “cliff” for colleges, as nearly $300 million in federal stimulus dollars supporting schools ran dry. “It may not be the devastation we all thought was coming,” said Todd Barre, the Louisiana Board of Regents deputy commissioner for finance and administration.

That does not mean colleges are getting everything they want, either. Nearly $40 million in anticipated tuition revenue has been stripped away and key pieces of legislation to let colleges increase costs through credit hours and operational fees have not even left the starting block.

Financially, higher education has been cut by about $315 million in more than two years, about 20 percent of state funds to colleges. The state general fund sends just more than $1 billion to fund higher education.