The 2010-2011 California state budget restores $199 million to the California State University and provides an additional $60.6 million for enrollment growth.ÂThe final budget will increase the system’s General Fund support from $2.35 billion (2009-2010) to $2.62 billion, marking the first restoration of state funding to the CSU since 2007.
Last year’s level of state support was the lowest for the CSU since 1999-2000 ($2.25 billion), and although the CSU will see an increase in state funding, the level of support is still at approximately 2005-2006 levels ($2.62 billion).
Despite receiving an increase over the previous year’s level of state support, the CSU still faces fiscal obligations including mandatory cost increases such as health care benefits and energy that the general fund increase will not cover.
Restoration to the CSU Budget
The 2010-11 state budget restores $199 million to the CSU which serves to back-fill part of a “one-time cut” of $305 million to the CSU’s 2009-2010 general fund base.
Funding for Enrollment Growth
The budget also provides $60.6 million for enrollment growth across the 23-campus system. Due to severe budget cuts over the previous two years, the CSU was forced to reduce enrollment by approximately 40,000 students since 2008 to align with available funding.
On Sept. 27, 2010, the CSU announced it would admit up to approximately 30,000 new students for the winter and spring 2011 terms and this additional support will be used to fund that enrollment growth.
The CSU will also receive $106 million in one-time ARRA federal stimulus funding which will be used to help CSU meet its payroll. In turn, CSU will use monies from state support and student fee revenues previously set aside for payroll to admit new students and restore courses that were previously cut due to budget reductions.