States Increase Spending on Colleges to $112B

This marks just the second time that state support for higher education has surpassed $100 billion in a year.

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• States continue to pump money into their colleges and universities.
• This comes alongside a decline in federal stimulus spending tied to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• California led the nation with over $21 billion in state support.

State support for colleges and universities grew for the 11th straight year, according to a report on state spending.

State governments allocated a little over $112.3 billion for fiscal year 2023 for higher education institutions, despite a decrease in federal stimulus funds. That’s a 6.6% increase from the year prior, according to the latest Grapevine report from the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO).

Federal stimulus dollars distributed to states for colleges and universities added another $1.2 billion to this total, down from $2.4 billion in 2022.

Most states reported an overall increase in combined state and federal stimulus spending.

According to the Grapevine report, 38 states reported overall increases from 2022-2023. Fourteen states reported increases of more than 10%, excluding federal stimulus funding. Those 14 states were:

Just 12 states and Washington, D.C., recorded a decline in state and federal stimulus funding. Those 12 states were:

Of those 12, Delaware, Georgia, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wisconsin saw increases in state support. However, reductions in federal stimulus funding led to an overall decline from 2022.

California led the nation in overall spending for 2023 with $21.3 billion in funding. The state did not receive any stimulus funding, so the entirety of that total is from the state.