Michigan earns F- grade in higher education
Michigan's public support of higher education has earned an F- grade according to the 2016 state report cards released by the advocacy group Young Invincibles.
Higher education expenditures make up only four percent of total state expenditures in 2014, said the report, three times lower than the national average of 12 percent. Michigan also was noted as having the "sixth highest average tuition and fees in the nation," at nearly $12,000 for an in-state student attending a public university.
At Central Michigan University student dollars comprise 57.7 percent of the university's operating budget while state appropriations funded only 16 percent of the budget.
The states were evaluated in the categories of per student spending, average university tuitions, state financial aid programs and attainment equity. Michigan is among 16 other states, including Ohio and Illinois, who failed to meet these requirements and earned an F. The only area Michigan earned the passing grade, a B-, was in the newly added category, attainment equity.
Attainment equity measures the gap in the number of high-school level courses completed between white non-Hispanics and two demographics, African Americans and Latinos. Michigan ranked just below the national average, meaning the number of white non-Hispanic and African American or Latino students both graduate high school and go on to pursue college degrees are similar in number.
As of fall 2015, African American students make up seven percent of the on-campus population while Hispanic/Latino students amount to three percent. White, non-Hispanic students make up 76 percent.
The state earned Fs in the categories of spending per student, burdens on families, state aid to students and education as a state priority.
"Michigan provides a measly $225 in grant aid per student, half the national average," the report reads. "Michigan needs to reinvest in higher education, providing more need-based financial aid so that students can receive their degrees without accruing huge debt."
In a 2015 report by the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association, Michigan spent $6,179 (in 2014 dollars) per student in 2008. By 2014, that spending decreased to $4,765.
