A Decade of Defunding Higher Ed: What UNI Cuts Mean to College-Bound Students in West Des Moines

College-bound students from West Des Moines Valley and all around the state will be entering college at a time when public funding for their educations is waning.

A report released March 8 shows, after accounting for inflation, that state funding for Iowa's public universities decreased nearly 40 percent between 2000 and 2011.

Even before adjusting for inflation, the report says, all three of Iowa’s public universities received fewer dollars from the state's general fund in fiscal year 2012 than they had in any year since 1996. The current budget woes especially illustrate a larger trend in the defunding of higher education.

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The report was compiled by the Iowa Fiscal Partnership, a joint initiative of The Iowa Policy Project and The Child and Family Policy Center. A full copy of the report is attached to this article as a PDF.

Students bearing burden of decreased funding

The impact of all of this has been heavily felt in recent weeks on the campus, with the controversial announcements of the planned closures of nearly 60 academic programs, along with and .

All of those cuts will affect the educational opportunities students receive.

But beyond this year's budget drama, students have been feeling the burden of the funding decreases for years.

Since 1990, even when adjusted for inflation, the report says, tuition at a public university for the average Iowa student has increased by more than 75 percent.

Iowa is not alone.

Nationally, funding for higher education has also waned.

The National Education Association published a report in January stating that across the country, inflation-adjusted state support per student fell by 23 percent from 2000 to 2010, according to College Board economists.

"That’s a trend across the country actually, Regents universities getting less money from states," State Representative Walt Rogers, R-Cedar Falls, said.

What will happen now?

Rogers said he hopes the Iowa House of Representatives will be open to increasing, rather than cutting, funding for the University of Northern Iowa this year.

In February, according to the website of the University of Northern Iowa Office of Governmental Relations, the House proposed an education budget that would slash a further $3 million from UNI.

However, the Iowa Senate Appropriations Committee has approved a $34-million funding increase for the three state universities for the next fiscal year.

The increase is part of the overall education appropriations bill, which will now be open for a floor vote by the senate. If approved, it will go to the Iowa House.

"I think there will be some leeway for debate as far as getting some of those funds in," Rogers said. "I will obviously advocate for UNI to get back to the status quo."

State senator Jeff Danielson, D-Cedar Falls, said he thinks change will take people across Iowa, not just in college towns, advocating for increased funding for higher education.

"When you look at the state budget, it’s a challenge. There's always greater needs than we have resources," he said. "Some have looked at the universities and education investment as a place where we could trim back. I think that’s a wrong way to go, because education is an investment in our future, and you can’t change that."

You can find more articles from this ongoing series, “Dispatches: The Changing American Dream” from across the country at The Huffington Post.