BE TRUE TO YOUR SCHOOL, TYPE? LEGISLATIVE SUPPORT FOR HIGHER EDUCATION BASED ON LEGISLATORS’ ALMA MATERS
Open Access
Author:
Goheen, Sean Patrick
Area of Honors:
Political Science
Degree:
Bachelor of Arts
Document Type:
Thesis
Thesis Supervisors:
Dr. Michael Barth Berkman, Thesis Supervisor Dr. Michael Barth Berkman, Thesis Supervisor Dr. Michael Barth Berkman, Thesis Honors Advisor Marie Hojnacki, Faculty Reader
Keywords:
Higher Education Funding Representation
Abstract:
The study of factors affecting higher education funding has grown tremendously over the past decade. Scholars have found that there are many economic, institutional, and political factors that determine how much of the budget a state dedicates to higher education funding. This study presents a model of higher education funding that includes documented factors in the funding process that also begins the study of a fourth category of factors, which is the personal effects of policy makers, in an effort to answer the question, “What effects higher education funding?” and more specifically, “Does the type of university that a legislator went to have any affect?” High proportions of state legislators with at least one degree of bachelors or higher from a public university has a positive impact on higher education funding in a state. This finding has implications for universities and their attempts at increasing their funding, as well as for the type of information that is included in datasets of state legislators.
