News

State money running low for higher ed

by Walter Pierce

Louisiana's higher education leaders are trying to work out a financing deal to keep the state's public colleges from running low on state cash to operate their campuses.

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - Louisiana's higher education leaders are trying to work out a financing deal to keep the state's public colleges from running low on state cash to operate their campuses.

Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration and lawmakers plugged dollars from property sales, legal settlements and other financing assumptions into the higher education budget this year. Much of that hasn't yet been deposited into the set-aside fund used to pay for public colleges and universities.

Uncertainties about the fund are creating cash flow concerns for colleges, with a money crunch looming by the end of the month at some campuses.

Jindal says the administration will shuffle around available state cash, if needed, to keep campuses afloat until the dollars planned for higher education's budget arrive. He says the schools will get the money promised.