Higher education funds begin slow recovery, By Ben Wieder, March 16, 2012, Stateline.org: “When Iowa Governor Terry Branstad stumped recently for increased higher education funding to keep down tuition, he was doing so in direct opposition to fellow-Republican legislators who control the state House of Representatives. It didn’t worry him. ‘The state of Iowa has a responsibility to shoulder part of the investment burden,’ Branstad said of higher education at a news conference ‘Student debt is a major concern in our state and the debt load of Iowa graduates is unacceptably high.’ The governor is calling for a $23 million increase to the budget for the state’s three public universities, while House Republicans have called for a $31 million decrease from the previous year. Branstad told Stateline that with revenues currently running above expectations, he believes his increase isn’t a stretch…”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty