Louisiana higher education officials say campus closures are a possibility

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Public college and university campuses in Louisiana could close if the state ends up cutting $300 million or more out of its higher education budget during the next fiscal cycle. Legislators and higher education officials said Louisiana college systems would have to shut the doors of multiple institutions and campuses if the schools have to absorb a funding reduction of that size. Around 15 locations -- including three in the University of Louisiana system and six in the community and technical college cohort -- could be directly affected.

"The magnitude of cuts being discussed for higher education could mean between 40 to 60 percent reductions of base funding for institutions in a single year. I do feel that all of our universities are critically needed for their regional economies and, especially, to meet the demands for workforce," said Sandra Woodley, president of the University of Louisiana system, when asked about the possibility of campuses shutting down. Closing college and university sites can be a tough issue politically, since higher education institutions often drive business, employment and other activity in their surrounding communities. State lawmakers frequently fight proposals to close schools, particularly if the shutdown will affect their own district and constituents.

"Right now, it is too early to say we are going to close institutions," said Rep. Steve Carter, R-Baton Rouge, who heads up the House Education Committee. But Louisiana's higher education institutions haven't seen a single-year budget reduction of this size in recent history. Current projections have the state's financial shortfall at $1.4 billion, and that budget hole is likely to grow as oil prices continue to drop.

Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration has predicted that higher education budget cuts will be anywhere from $200 million to $300 million next year. Legislators and education officials insist the shortfall will actually be higher, around $380 million.

Regardless, a $300 million cut would be a sizable chunk of the Louisiana's higher education spending. It's roughly equal to the entire public budget of Louisiana's community and technical college system for this year. The figure is around a third of the size of LSU's public operating budget, even when factoring in tuition payments and federal financial support.

"I just don't know what institutions are going to do. We have institutions that are struggling right now," Carter said, "We need to take a hard, long look at the mission of each institution." Higher education is also not the only thing keeping legislators up at night about the coming state budget reductions. Legislators said Jindal is supposedly looking to take some $250 million out of state health services in the next fiscal year.

Since the state uses some of that $250 million in health care money to get matching federal funding now, the total net loss to Louisiana's health care budget would actually be much higher, somewhere around $1 billion, according to Senate President John Alario."That would be devastating to state health care," he said.

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