Nevada's funding for higher ed cut 7 percent in budget

State funding for the Nevada System of Higher Education will drop from the $691.5 million in this year’s original budget to $637.5 in FY2022 and $639.9 in FY2023.

Overall, those numbers represent a reduction of more than 7 percent in state cash.

For the formula budgets that provide education for most university and community college students, the cuts are much deeper at Western Nevada College — over 10 percent each year. WNC will receive a total of $26.9 million in state funding over the biennium.

System Chief Financial Officer Andrew Clinger told members of the joint Senate Finance and Assembly Ways and Means committees 34 percent of the NSHE budget comes from the state. He said, however, most of the reduction will be covered by salary savings from not filling vacant positions, about $93 million, and $73 million in operating expense cuts.

The system’s professional schools are also getting cut back to cover the reductions called for by Gov. Steve Sisolak. Both the UNR and UNLV medical school budgets, Boyd Law School and the UNLV Dental School all face 10-11 percent cuts from current funding. Altogether, those four schools are budgeted at more than $95 million a year.

Tuition and fees collected by the various institutions make up about 24 percent of the system’s total budget and grants and contracts another 22 percent. Altogether, NSHE’s budget for the biennium is nearly $2 billion.

But the cuts were somewhat offset by the coronavirus relief funds totaling $112 million.

Recognizing that the enrollment at all institutions is growing, the budget asks for capacity enhancement funding. For WNC, that is $300,000 a year to expand the Dual Credit initiative providing both high school and college credit for certain courses. The money will also expand the WNC rural nursing program and access and retention of underserved student populations. WNC is also on the list for a complete renovation of Marlette Hall, one of the oldest buildings on the Carson City campus. It will cost $1.49 million to do the work on the 22-year-old building.

Great Basin will get $700,000 a year to handle growing workforce demands in its paramedic, substance abuse counseling and provide rural students access to the GBC nursing program. GBC will also get a $6.3 million infusion of cash to double the size and capacity of its welding lab.