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While state funding for higher education tumbled for the first time in 11 years, low-income students enrolling in the University of Wisconsin System also dropped.

State support for the UW System fell by nearly 10 percent to $399.1 million in 2003, while tuition revenue jumped by 9 percent, to $250.2 million.

Between 1992 and 2003, low-income enrollment plunged by 42.5 percent, while medium-high and high enrollment grew by 8 percent collectively. Families who make $30,000 or less annually qualify as low-income, and those grossing $83,000 or more annually qualify as high-income families.

James C. Palmer, a professor of higher education at Illinois State University, conducted a 50-state survey measuring annual tax appropriations, which was first conducted in 1960 and includes higher-education data. He said the national 2.1 percent drop reflects the impact of the recession and the increased competition for scarce state dollars.

“Higher education is a discretionary item in state budgets,” Palmer said. “When revenues fall short of expectations, states scramble to cut funds, and higher education is where the cuts are made.”

Higher-education cuts will force public institutions to step up their fund-raising to collect revenue to keep schools running, Palmer said.

“If the past is prologue and if the economy improves, then state tax appropriations should start increasing,” he said. “But that’s just making up for losses we’ve experienced.”

With falling state subsidies and skyrocketing tuition prices across the nation, Palmer feels tuition prices are a subject we can no longer dodge.

“We’re going to have to address the issue of student tuition sooner or later,” he said, adding that while speculate data regarding low-income enrollment is scarce and unavailable at this time, it needs to remain a concern. “How long can we keep on increasing tuition before it comes politically difficult to do?”

UW Board of Regents member Nino Amato, who also serves as chairman of the Wisconsin Technical College System Board, said continual increases in tuition are pricing lower-income students out of universities.

“It’s a wake-up call and a downright tragedy if we don’t reverse the damage,” he said.

Amato pointed out that tuition is not the only college cost on the rise. Housing costs are increasing on almost every UW System campus, and he said students pay an average of $12,600 in four years for housing on a UW campus.

“I always hear everyone saying how UW-Madison is such a good bargain,” Amato said. “It is if you are making $61,000 a year, and really good for $83,000 every year.”

The University of Wisconsin-Madison totals around $40,000 per student graduating in four years, and UW freshmen in 2003 will graduate with an average loan debt of $16,000. Amato also said at least 60 percent of students graduate with some level of debt.

Amato said the cost of health care is an incredible burden on the state budget and could be hampering funding available for higher education. Amato said that before adequate higher-education funding is available, the economy will have to improve and mechanisms to address skyrocketing health care must be created.

“If we want to grow a state successfully economically, we must reduce tuition and increase financial aid. The more students we can bring in with two- or four-year degrees, that’s going to raise education and, in turn, income — that’s how to benefit Wisconsin,” he said.

Amato said the UW Board of Regents will address the issues in meetings Feb. 5 and 6. “We want to see things change,” he said. “The students should hold regents accountable to make these changes.”