Gov. Bill Haslam proposed a $31 billion spending plan that would raise pay for state workers by 2.5 percent, fund a new science building at Middle Tennessee State University and cut more than 1,100 state jobs across Tennessee.

The House version of the budget is nearly $3 billion more than the one recommended by the governor last month.

The governor’s proposal will let a central board dole out funding to individual colleges, taking into account enrollment and several performance measures. To help with the transition, Patrick is proposing a $10 million bump in the community college system’s budget for the coming year.

Although higher education takes a hit in the governor's proposed budget, it also proposes increasing funding for K-12 schools by $5 million. However, the total amount is still nearly $500 million less than what is called for by the state’s school funding formula.

Overall, Gov. Butch Otter is projecting $2.7 billion in revenue for 2013, an increase of 5.8 percent from 2012. The governor's office expects fiscal year 2012 to yield $2.55 billion in revenue. If the 2012 revenues hit that target, the state would end up with an overage of about $103 million, which Otter already has plans for in the 2013 budget.

Proposal to use schools' reserve funds finds little support in legislature.

The proposal calls for five of the state's largest universities to transfer $106 million from their reserves to the state so that Missour could avoid making deep cuts to the core budgets for higher education institutions in the 2013 fiscal year.

Gov. John Hickenlooper said Tuesday he is pleased the state's executive director of budgeting could bring some holiday cheer to lawmakers with a revised budget forecast that might potentially allow $89 million to be restored to Colorado's education funding.

Gov. Bob McDonnell's plan would increase spending for state colleges, transportation and economic development and would pump cash into underfunded state employee and teacher pension plans. But it calls for nearly $800 million in targeted savings in specific areas, mostly in Medicaid and public schools.

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon is asking five state universities to consider lending the state more than $100 million next year to help balance the state's budget, a proposal that is drawing fire from key legislators unhappy with both its secrecy and its impact.

The sixth-annual Tennessee Pork Report is chock-full yet again, of waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement of taxpayer money by state and local government officials. Despite a changing political landscape in Tennessee, wasteful government spending has not disappeared.

An evaluation of the current system of higher education accreditation as well as proposed reforms on all of the most important dimensions and demonstrates how public policies addressing one issue can create or exacerbate problems in others.

In some cases, the institutions of higher education in Misouri are doing a great job; in others, not so well. The purpose of the report is not to be punitive, but to address ways higher education in Missouri can be more accountable and transparent. The report is designed to showcase information and data of interest to students, parents, alumni, and taxpayers.

Are students learning the things they need to know? Is there a healthy exchange of ideas? Are trustees upholding the public trust? Are taxpayers getting a good value for their money? These are the kinds of questions to which the people of Minnesota deserve answers. It is the goal of this report card to provide answers and to help Minnesota—a state rightly known for its passion for education—be a national standard bearer for excellence, accountability, and efficiency in higher education.

At the most basic level, the course on which Illinois' public universities find themselves is unsustainable. Costs are rising too quickly, and quality is not high enough.

Merely spending money is not enough - the question arises: is Washington getting good value for its public expenditures? Washington spends a lot on colleges, but relatively few of its citizens graduate from college. Moreover, the evidence suggests costs are rising rather significantly over time. Staffs are typically increasing faster than student enrollments. For all the concerns about inadequate state support heard from university leaders, the evidence shows Washington treats higher education more generously than most of its neighbors or other American states, while in some respects it may get less in results.

Texas is well-placed to build on existing strengths relative to other states in the areas of tuition costs, student loan indebtedness and civic education requirements. Moreover, our legislators and universities have committed to increasing graduation rates, online learning opportunities and accountability in public higher education.

A guide to needed reforms in pensions, taxes and higher education, among other areas, with  two types of goals that are important when working towards limiting government: long-term policy objectives that show the end-game goals and short-term policies that steer public policy towards the long-term goals. This guide provides both.

Ten ideas to cut waste and balance the buget without raising taxes, including more efficient K-12 funding, spending high education tax dollars more wisely and rein in state employee salaries and benefits.

In light of Oregon facing a budget crisis, the Taxpayer Foundation has issued a master list of budget balancing ideas that do not require raising taxes. These ideas have been collected from Oregon lawmakers, think tank groups, taxpayer organizations, unions, policy analysts, Democrats, Republicans and even ideas utilized in states across the nation.

Establish limited priorities for Oklahoma’s state government. Once limited priorities are set, everything else should be considered according to these priorities. The state currently has hundreds of agencies, boards, and commissions; it’s no wonder there is chronic overspending and regular “revenue shortfalls.”

With shrinking budgets and growing demand for immediate solutions, lawmakers need to know what questions to ask and where to turn for fast, reliable information to make informed higher education policy decisions.

The time has come for openness and accountability in post-secondary education. The best way to achieve this is through performance audits, which look at all facets of an institution-from student input/outcome data to faculty process data to all aspects of financial data. This project is to develop areas of process for a Performance Audit Guide used to evaluate how public (and/or private) institutions use student, public, and donor funds to meet the institutions' primary missions.

The Center for College Affordability and Productivity (CCAP) identified 25 ways to reduce college costs and has produced an extensive book-length study to explore them.

This paper examines the broader economic studies that attempt to correlate expenditure with results. He finds that the results are not as favorable as they are often said to be, and he offers some explanations for why.

The document explains why and how New York state developed such massive budget deficits and identifies programmatic changes to begin closing the gaps, including privatization and competitive contracting, cost reductions and tax policy goals to promote economic growth.

ALEC has a variety of model legislation addressing several different aspects of higher education, including accountability, quality and funding.