Financing College Opportunity

Factors Influencing State Spending on Student Financial Aid and Campus Appropriations, 1990 through 2010

Bibliographic Data

ID5742130
AuthorsMichael K Mclendon (0000-0002-3892-7157), David A Tandberg, Nicholas Hillman (0000-0002-5606-6389), Nicholas W Hillman
Year2014
Volume655
Issue1
Pages143-162
Publication date2014-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0002-7162 • E-ISSN: 1552-3349
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0002716214540849
OpenAlexW1983121514
LanguageEN
Citations received19
References cited47

Some states invest relatively heavily in financial aid programs that benefit lower-income citizens, while other states concentrate their investment in programs that benefit students from higher-income backgrounds. States also vary in their levels of direct appropriations to campuses, a form of public subsidy that has long been viewed as benefitting middle-income citizens. What factors influence states to allocate higher education subsidies in a more or a less redistributive manner? This article reports on a study that examined sources of variation in state spending on need-based aid, merit-based aid, and appropriations over the period 1990-2010. Findings document relationships among spending patterns and structural and political conditions of states, indicating a "trade-off" between spending on merit- and need-based aid; as states invest more in the former, they reduce spending on the latter. We also show that the presence of a Republican governor and the strength of Republican representation in statehouses each is associated with increased state spending on need-based financial aid. Our results further show that increased wealth is positively associated with state spending on merit-based financial aid programs and state appropriations for higher education, but not need-based financial aid. We also find distinctive patterns of state support for higher education depending on the degree of centralization of a state's governance arrangement for higher education; namely, the presence of a highly centralized structure is associated with decreased spending on merit-based aid programs and increased state appropriations to colleges and universities

Business · Corporate governance · Economic growth · Economics · Governor · Higher education · Investment (military) · Market economy · Political science · Politics · Public economics · State (computer science) · Subsidy · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Finance · Fiscal Policies and Political Economy · Higher Education Research Studies · Law

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