States continue to feel the impact of low revenue and a lack of support from the federal government. As a result, many state-supported colleges and universities have seen dramatic budget cuts in recent years. In an effort to minimize the damage, colleges and universities are approving skyrocketing tuitions. An informal scan of recent headlines (see below) shows some of the steep increases, with most in the double digits extending up to 28%.

Unemployment Up

The first week in July brought more bad news about the weak labor market. The Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that the unemployment rate for June rose by 0.3 percentage points to 6.4 percent - a nine year high. Total employment declined this last month for the fifth straight month, with 30,000 lost jobs. Since the start of the recession, total employment has declined by 2.6 million and the private sector has lost 3.1 million jobs. This may be the first administration since Hoover’s where total employment has dropped.

Soft money disclosure information became searchable and downloadable on the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) site July 1st, meeting a deadline set by Congress last November. The disclosure information is reported to the IRS by political action committees (PACs) under a law passed in 2000. The website only allows searches of reports that filed electronically. Over the past two years, most reports have been filed on paper and are available in PDF format. Beginning this month, PACs that raise or spend more than $50,000 a year will be required to file their reports electronically, so that the amount of searchable information will increase over time.

The Bush administration and House leadership are proposing to block grant the Head Start program in eight states. This means states can use federal funds for their own early-childhood education programs and would no longer have to abide by national standards.