Funding education seems to be on the front lines when it comes to cuts, and Loyola and other private institutions are suffering.
According to Tommy Screen, assistant to the university president for government relations, Loyola won’t get money from the state government designated for education for the fiscal year 2009-2010.
Screen also said Loyola and other private universities and colleges won’t get funding from the Aid to Independent Colleges Program next year, which is state money that Loyola gets on an annual basis to educate Louisiana’s citizens.
The Louisiana Association of Independent Colleges and Universities and its members — including Loyola, Tulane, Xavier and Dillard universities, among others — are not fighting for the stimulus money but for the money from the Aid to Independent College Program, Screen said.
According to Screen, capitation money is exclusively for private institutions and has nothing to do with stimulus dollars. Private institutions are looking for a 100 percent cut by the Governor’s budget, he said.
However, “capitation itself is a separate pot of money than the higher education budget for public institutions,” Screen said.
“Capitation” payments are fixed taxes that every citizen must pay.
According to Screen, this money has to be appropriated separately through an agency. This process is called “run-through,” he said. The state legislature can’t offer that money directly to Loyola, Tulane, Xavier or Dillard.
Screen said the commissioner of administration, Angelle Davis, who is the governor’s budget director and her staff zeroed out all run-through, not only capitation but also public television.
“What I would say is that they used the blunt instrument for surgical procedure as analogy,” he said.
“It’s our thought that they could have gone through the budget and made hard decisions on what programs to keep and what programs to cut, instead they cut all of the run-through programs.”
Screen said Loyola relies on this money every year as part of its budget.
According to Vice President of Finance and Administration, Jay Calamia, capitation funds represent about 1 percent in Loyola’s budget.
“It’s not a huge part but it’s an important part,” Screen said regarding capitation money in Loyola’s budget.
Calamia said Loyola received approximately $600,000 from the state last year.
Calamia said the university will need to find other sources of revenue or reduce expenses to offset this loss aid.
Screen said Loyola receives $438 per Louisiana student.
The battle is not over for Loyola and other private institutions.
“We’ve been out front (and) we’ve met with the governor’s staff,” Screen said.
Screen also said Loyola and other members from the Louisiana Association of Independent Colleges and Universities are asking the governor and state legislators that the capitation program’s funding be cut by the same percentage that the state’s higher education institutions are facing.
“Just treat us equal is basically our message to the state legislature,” he said.
“Our argument to state legislators is ‘we receive $438 per Louisiana citizen that we educate, that same student if she or he went to LSU, UL or UNO would cost the state $6,000 to educate’ so we are giving them what we think is better education, we are relieving the state of close to $6,000 in responsibility and we are keeping them home,” said Screen.
“I’m cautiously optimistic that we’ll get some of this restored,” said Screen.
Andrea Castillo can be reached at [email protected].
