The Oregonian
November 6, 2015
Oregon slashed per-student spending on higher education more than all but one other state between 2000 and 2014, according to a new national study.
Oregon's 51 percent decline, to $4,134 per student, resulted from a combination of funding cuts by the Legislature and a recession-era enrollment increase that topped every other state, the Urban Institute study shows.
State education officials note that the Legislature partially restored funding cuts after the period covered by the study. But they say they aren't surprised by the research's ranking of Oregon, which tied with Pennsylvania and was surpassed only by Michigan.
"Oregon's enrollments and disinvestment in higher education exceeded virtually every other state in the nation," said Ben Cannon, executive director of the Oregon Higher Education Coordinating Commission. "The majority of universities' revenue used to come from the state."
That was in the 1980s and '90s. State revenues declined after 1990, when voters passed Measure 5, which limited property taxes. Community colleges, which rely on local levies, were hit especially hard.