38. Provide additional federal funding to state institutions of higher education in ways that incentivize additional state investments.
Here’s what the federal government can do:
- Congress should provide federal funding for state institutions of higher education with state match, maintenance of effort (MOE), and supplement not supplant (SNS) requirements.
- Congress should provide stable funding and increased support to states during economic downturns.
A major driver contributing to the rising cost of college and student debt is state disinvestment in higher education. While 77 percent of college students attend public higher education institutions, state support has fallen.[i] Congress should create new federal-state partnerships that equitably invest in publicly funded colleges and better equip states to support public higher education. Federal-state partnerships should prioritize the goals of increasing educational quality, reducing student expenses, lifting barriers to degree attainment, stabilizing state funding through economic downturns, and providing support services and programs to help more students reach graduation.
[i]Undergraduate Enrollment. Condition of Education. U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences, 2023. https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/cha.