Senate GOP: 16 percent higher ed cut

Senate Republicans released their budget targets this morning, which propose cutting state higher education budget by 16 percent.

It proposed $2.5 billion in higher ed appropriations, compared to this year’s $2.98 billion in spending.

By comparison, Gov. Mark Dayton’s bill proposed almost $2.75 billion in spending, an 8 percent cut from this year’s level.

(Under Dayton’s plan, the University of Minnesota and Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU) system said their cuts within the Dayton budget amounted to a little less — 6 percent.)

Senate Republicans provided no breakdown of the proposed cuts – those details are generally left for policy committees to decide – but for context you can see the spreadsheet of all their budget targets here.

House Republicans are expected to release their targets early this afternoon.

About the blogger

Alex Friedrich

afriedrich@mpr.org

Alex Friedrich reports on higher education issues for MPR News. Among the stories he has covered: the fall of the Berlin Wall, aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis, 2003 Moscow suicide bombing and 2004 presidential elections in the Republic of Georgia. He holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Georgia and a master’s in European political economy from the London School of Economics.