Conservatism Rising: The Republican Effect on State Higher Education Funding Since 2011

• In Event: 45.092 - MTCC Roundtable Session 17
  In Roundtable Session: 45.092-9 - Politics of Postsecondary Education and Education Funding

Abstract

This paper examined whether Republicans’ state higher education policies since the 2010 elections have been different than before 2010. Accordingly, this paper compared the effect of increases in the number of Republican legislators on state funding for higher education in the eight years prior to the 2010 elections (2004-2010) to the subsequent eight years (2011-2017). The results indicate that increases in the number of Republican legislators within states had a negative effect on higher education funding after the 2010 election but not during the eight years before. This finding provides support popular conceptions about conservative approaches to higher education funding and may further demonstrate a rightward shift in conservative beliefs since 2011.

Authors

• James Joseph Schiltz, Iowa State University

• Garrett H. Gowen, Iowa State University