Louisiana higher education seeks budget increase — but some lawmakers call for restraint

Louisiana higher education leaders asked legislators on Monday to consider giving them more money as many regional universities struggle financially — but some lawmakers argued it’s time for those schools to take a hard look at whether budget cuts are necessary instead.

“We have hundreds of programs that we’ve closed,” Commissioner of Higher Education Kim Hunter Reed said during a Senate Finance Committee meeting. “But if you say to us, we’re not going to be able to provide additional dollars, and you have to flourish within your means — not just survive within your means — then we have to do a couple of things.”

“It will be extremely tight,” she said.

Officials with the Board of Regents say that the current budget is $869 million short of what it considers full funding for higher education in Louisiana. The board is requesting $119 million in additional state general fund money for fiscal year 2026-27.

Reed said enrollment fluctuations, growing athletics department budgets and inflation have contributed to strained resources at some institutions, but did not specify which schools are faring the worst.

She called the circumstances a “perfect storm” for many schools.

“Regional institutions are generally seeing enrollment shifts, population declines and challenges of that sort,” Reed said. “Not going to sugarcoat it, we definitely have some institutions that are struggling.”

If the Legislature does not award the requested higher education funding, Reed said, the Board of Regents will be working with university systems to evaluate which programs can be cut and how they can specialize as institutions. She said leaders could trim degrees that are offered at multiple schools in the same system, for example.

“That is the kind of exercise that we would have to step through if we’re not able to get there,” Reed said.

Some lawmakers said that kind of change may be necessary.

“I think that time is now, I really do,” Sen. Gerald Boudreaux, D-Lafayette, said. “I think that’s where we are.”

Some lawmakers pressed Reed about budget crises at Louisiana’s smaller public universities, referencing shaky finances at the University of New Orleans — which led the school to be reintegrated into the Louisiana State University system — and the University of Louisiana at Monroe. Some argued they were caught off guard by the scale of the problems.

“We find out our colleges are not just struggling; they’ve been struggling,” Sen. Glen Womack, R-Harrisonburg, said.

Reed said quarterly financial reports submitted by each institution will help keep the Legislature and the public abreast of the financial situations at Louisiana’s colleges and universities.

“When the situation happened with UNO, we had no knowledge of the information, and we looked to the systems to say, we’ve got to do a better job of having real-time data,” Reed said.