State or Local Institutions? The Relationships Between State Community College Governance Centralization and Local Appropriations

• In Event: AERA Poster Session 6
  In Poster Session: Division J Poster Session: Policy, Finance, and Economics

Abstract

State-level community college governance structures have increasingly become centralized, both through formal authority and funding, as policymakers have increasingly pursued higher education governance reform. This two-way, fixed effects analysis examines the relationship between local appropriations and community college state governance structures while taking into account their moderating impact and controlling for state-level factors. We find a relationship between local appropriations and states with no formal coordinating authority and that this absence moderates the relationship between unemployment and appropriations. Based on our findings, resisting centralization efforts might be to the financial benefit of community colleges; however, this does not consider the impacts varying degrees of centralization might have on stakeholders outside of the local appropriations process.

Authors

• Lindsey Hammond, University of Georgia

• Sean Baser, University of Georgia

• Alexander Cassell, The Pennsylvania State University - University Park