FY 2021 Strategic Plan Update and Budget Report

Higher Ed’s Response &
Future Implications
The COVID-19 pandemic and the related
shutdown triggered disruption that had
devastating consequences for much of higher
education. Congress passed the Coronavirus
Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES)
Act in response to the economic fallout of
the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.
This Act disbursed $14 billion in aid to public
colleges and universities, of which more than
$6 billion was restricted to direct assistance to
students.
Public colleges and universities across the
nation spent enormous sums of money to
support their students through the pandemic;
switch to online education; and issue refunds
to students for parking, housing, and dining
services for the period of time when they were
not on campus in the spring. For many public
colleges, these costs alone were much higher
than the federal funding they would receive
from the CARES Act.
Beyond basic financial needs, the pandemic
forced most colleges to expand their online
curriculum, for better or worse. Some simply
for survival. As many private colleges moved
more of their curriculum online to address social
distancing requirements, students and parents
began questioning whether the loss of the
traditional on-campus ‘college experience’ will
still be worth the hefty tuition.
In each of the three previous recessions there
was a spike in total community and technical
college enrollments at the beginning of the
recession. Younger, unskilled workers are
typically among the first to lose their jobs
in a recession, thus the jump in the youth
unemployment rate can be viewed as a leading
indicator and accelerant for the return-to-school
movement.
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STRATEGIC PLAN & BUDGET REPORT