Funding For Jersey Colleges Could Soon Go Up

Governor Christie says he’s committed to spending more on higher education in the Garden state.

During his latest town hall in Caldwell, the Governor said “for the last 10 years, New Jersey has ranked 49^th in its investment in its higher education institutions…I’m going to have a budget speech next Tuesday, so I don’t want to give anything away - too much now - but what I will tell is ...when I was campaigning in 2009…I said when things got better, the first thing I would spend money on…would be to invest more money in our higher education institutions.”

Christie said we need to do that in two ways – “one, by giving more regular aid to our state colleges to try to keep tuition down and more affordable for the kids who want to stay here in New Jersey, and secondly…we haven’t made any significant capital investment in our state universities since 1988…so I think we need to start taking a look at reinvesting to create more classroom space.”

He also pointed out many Jersey born students would like to attend college here, but they can’t get in because there’s a shortage of seats - and that’s creating a “brain drain,” where students are forced out of state, and sometimes never return – so the issue must be addressed.