The Magic Formula:

Having an endowment provides stability for higher education institutions, it allows them to make commitments into the future and to adapt and respond to changing economic or demographic landscapes.

Public universities and colleges are less likely to have endowments, as private donors believe these institutions primarily rely on state and local appropriations, allocated from taxes which they pay.

However, with severe state disinvestment from public higher education we witnessed in the last decades, public institutions are no longer adequately funded by state and local appropriations.

In Massachusetts, state aid to public higher education has decreased 32% since 2001, resulting in higher tuition and fees and more debt burden for students and families.

State re-investment in public higher education is imperative in Massachusetts. Correspondingly, we propose accelerating the process by re-appropriating funds into a pre-existing program that was terminated in 2010: The Public Higher Education Endowment Incentive and Capital Outlay Contribution Program.

The program’s goal is to encourage private fundraising by public higher education institutions through a state matching program.

Twenty-four other states have created similar matching fund programs, which have proven to yield a substantial return on investment.

In Massachusetts, the $50 million state match funding helped public campuses raise over $125 million in private contributions. This represents a return of investment rate of 250 percent.

Senator Eric Lesser, Representative Adrian Madaro, and Representative James Arciero have filed a bill “An Act relative to the endowment match program” (SD1386, HD925, HD3936) proposing to extend $20,000,000 for the purposes of continuing the implementation of this program.

We ask lawmakers to support and pass this bill, as we should not pass on the opportunity to attract an additional $2 for every state dollar spent on our public colleges and universities.