Relationships between higher education funding and state, student, and institutional demographic characteristics

The purpose of this study was to provide answers to four questions. Are higher education enrollments related to measures of higher education financial support, such as federal and state tax effort? To what extent and degree are selected state demographic characteristics related to state higher education tax effort? How do states compare on their tax effort for support of higher education? How have federal and state government appropriations for higher education in the United States changed in proportion to the increased personal income of the nation?;Higher education enrollments are significantly negatively correlated with both federal and state higher education tax effort. Several state demographic characteristics are significantly correlated with state higher education tax effort.;Comparison of states' tax effort for the support of higher education indicates southern and western states comprise the majority of the top ten states with the highest percentage of state per capita personal income for higher education tax effort. Conversely, the lowest percentage of state per capita personal income for higher education tax effort is expended by New England states.;Income elasticity of demand for higher education was elastic for the nineteen-year period 1981 to 1999 on three separate measures. However, during the period 1980 to 1999, federal and state governments significantly reduced their tax effort for support of capital investment in higher education while both public and private higher education enrollments increased.;The findings and conclusions of this research support prior research indicating that federal and state governments are shifting responsibility for funding human capital investment in higher education away from both federal and state governments to students and their families. Moreover, the prevailing implications of this research are that (a) the United States will continue to have a system of higher education that is stratified by socio-economic status and (b) the inequalities of income in the future for Americans are all but guaranteed.