Higher ed sees 4.3% jump in state funding for FY2025

Higher Ed Dive

Ben Unglesbee

February 4, 2024

Dive Brief:

• State funding for higher education in fiscal 2025 rose 4.3% year over year before inflation and by roughly a third from five years ago, according to the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association’s annual Grapevine report.

• The $129.1 billion in state funding for higher ed marked the fourth year of spending over the $100 billion mark.

• Excluding federal stimulus money, 41 states increased or held flat their higher ed funding, with seven of them raising it by 10% or more. Nine decreased their spending on the sector overall. The Grapevine data is based on initial allocations from October 2024 to January 2025 and could change.

Dive Insight:

Along with their own support, states put more federal dollars toward higher ed.

State allocations of federal funding rose 2.2% in fiscal 2025 compared to the prior year. The $637.9 million in added federal stimulus money brought total state support to $129.7 billion for the year, according to the Grapevine report.

Going back to 2020, states have allocated over $10 billion of federal stimulus funding to higher ed, money that helped buttress institutions against the financial turbulence of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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