HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, HEIGHTENING-THE-CONTRADICTIONS EDITION: Pandemic Worsened Public Higher Ed’s Biggest Challenges.

More than three-quarters of respondents reported government funding is a “big challenge” for their institutions. A primary driver for this is the decline in the belief that public education is a public good, according to a report on survey findings, which also said that the reputation of public higher education has been damaged by the Varsity Blues admissions scandal and various sexual assault and athletics scandals.

Sophia Laderman, a senior policy analyst at the State Higher Education Executive Officers association, has observed similar trends in her research.

“When state governments are faced with reduced tax revenues and increased needs in health care and other essential areas, it’s difficult to allocate funding to higher education over another budget area even if you understand that higher education is essential to future economic development and contributes greatly to our democracy, etc.,” Laderman wrote in an email.

Related: States are cutting university budgets. Taxpayers aren’t interested in funding campus kooks. “Whom the gods would destroy, they first make crazy. And higher education has become objectively crazy.”