KSC Advocates

Tips for the public hearing:

When you enter the room there is a table with copies of the bill(s) to be heard and each bill will have a corresponding sign-up sheet.  There is a space for your name, address, who is being represented and whether or not you wish to speak. Be sure to check the top of the sheet to confirm the bill number.  Senate Committees usually have between 5 & 7 members, so providing 10 copies of testimony is a safe bet.

Talking points: 

• Encourage NH Senators to support Governor Hassan’s proposed budget for USNH (FY14=$75M, FY15=$90M). The Board of Trustees and all four institutions are committed to using every dollar of the budget restoration to support New Hampshire students directly. USNH institutions will freeze in-state tuition for two years and use all remaining restored funds for merit and need-based scholarship aid. Together, we can increase the number of talented students who graduate into New Hampshire’s workforce.

• In the last state budget (FY12–13), the appropriation to USNH was cut by 49 percent. Currently, state funding accounts for just 6 percent of our operating budget. Before the 49 percent cut, New Hampshire was already last in the nation in per capita funding for public higher edu­cation.

• From FY00 to FY12, enrollment at USNH institutions grew by 22.6 percent, whereas state support declined by 28.1 percent.

• Average student loan debt for graduates from New Hampshire is now the highest in the nation, at approximately $32,000 per student. This growth has occurred despite our efforts to direct scarcer resources to student aid. We increased in-state financial aid from $6.6 million in 2003 to $33.2 million in 2013.

• For New Hampshire businesses to thrive, we need college graduates who can reason and communicate, who understand evidence-based practice, and who are scientifically and mathematically literate. We particularly need graduates who have majored in the sciences, technology, engineering and math (STEM).

• Our public four-year colleges and universities graduate more STEM students than all other institutions combined. And no one has more STEM-related transfer options for community college graduates.

• Lack of state funding makes it increasingly difficult to attract talented New Hampshire students, who receive highly competitive offers of merit aid from both public and private universities outside New Hampshire. Admissions yields for students from New Hampshire have dropped significantly since the cut in state funding: 13 percent in the current year and slightly more for next year.

• Moreover, while our colleges and universities absorbed most of the state budget cuts in ways that minimized the impact on students, we have increased enrollments and teaching loads to the point where it will be difficult to address such key initiatives as producing more STEM graduates.

• Supporting public higher education is the best way to develop the work force New Hampshire needs to thrive. When KSC graduates more than 1,218 students this month, half of them will stay in the state.

Businesses can no longer count on an in-migration of educated workers to fill our needs. Rather, we must develop a strong pipeline of New Hampshire students who will see their home state as a desirable place to be educated and to work.