I read so often about the importance of students' sense of "belonging" in college, and yet just this week, I've also read about multiple states choosing precarious special funding models for supports for low-income students rather than regular dedicated state budget lines. Each of these unstable funding streams seems to convey to students that their ability to enroll and to stay in college - to belong – will remain an open question.
All the special social events for low-income/first-generation students are fun and good; being able to focus on fun and on courses without endless worry about money may evince an even stronger sense of belonging among peers whose parents pay the bills.
In each of these states, students working hard to get into college and/or vocational training have been left unclear about how to plan and uncertain whether to trust the whole process.
I wrote earlier this week about the Texas legislature promising to reward community colleges for success with low-income students, yet failing to budget enough money to fund the campuses that met targets for student success. These campuses are now facing budget cuts instead of the predicted budget increases.
In Tennessee, the legislature funded 13 scholarship programs for college and job training programs with lottery proceeds rather than from a stable line item in the state budget. But now, in part because the state also recently legalized online sports betting (with proceeds going to K-12 school maintenance and construction), lottery revenue is dropping:
Net lottery proceeds — the money left over after prizes and operating costs are covered — have fallen 21.9% since fiscal year 2022, while scholarship enrollment and spending have continued to grow, according to the report produced by nonpartisan think tank ThinkTennessee and the Tennessee Skills Coalition. The report projects a funding shortfall of up to $344 million by fiscal year 2030.
In Mississippi this summer, 170 students who'd been in foster care got the "soul-crushing" news just weeks before the start of the semester that they would not be getting promised funding to cover their food, housing, and fees.
As in Texas and Tennessee, the Mississippi legislature declined to provide stable funding for these students:
The scholarship structure is paired with a unique funding mechanism. “Each year, the Legislature has to provide a specific appropriation for the FAITH Scholarship. It is not one of those programs that is just covered like MTAG and MESG and HELP (other financial aid programs in the state) under our general appropriation,” Jennifer Rogers told the Mississippi Free Press in a July 31 interview.
“We asked for right at $4.6 million to fully fund FAITH for the 2026-2027 academic year. We received $3 million.”
Ironically, the new and easier FAFSA financial aid application processes contributed to more students applying for the FAITH scholarships this year, as the legislature casually underfunded the program.
In Mississippi, nonprofits rushed in to temporarily fill funding gaps. In Tennessee and Texas, legislatures promised to eventually work on fixes.
We've yet to develop anything close to a collective commitment to funding higher education for low-income students as a public investment – in them and in what they'll bring to their communities, families, and workplaces.
Other states had already announced expected shortfalls in promised access scholarship programs; federal education budgets have been piecemeal and unpredictable for far too long.
Pell Grants once did much of this work, but now, with state and federal budget cuts, so many students are one car repair away from having to drop out.
These are all policy choices, made by legislatures with very few members from poor and working-class backgrounds.
Other choices are possible, especially if we take seriously the mission of educating all students on campus about the structural economic inequalities shaping access to college.
