Data Limitations
Listed below are the instructions sent to the state agencies that send appropriations data to Grapevine. Please keep in mind that different practices among the 50 states make it impossible to eliminate all inconsistencies and to ensure absolute comparability among states and institutions. In addition, state "tax effort" supporting higher education should not be confused with "state spending" for higher education. We ask states to exclude monies derived from non-tax sources; thus, the Grapevine data do not reflect total state fiscal support for higher education.
It is important to remember that each year we ask states for data in the new fiscal year as well as for revisions to data reported in previous years. Thus, the current data delineated in the tables on this web site may differ from data reported by Grapevine in previous years. (Grapevine reports for previous years are available in the "Historical Data" section of the web site.) In addition, the data reported here are subject to amendments by the states in subsequent surveys.
Instructions sent to the states
- Report only appropriations, not actual expenditures.
- Report only sums appropriated for annual operating expenses.
- For state tax appropriations in complex universities, set out separately the sums
appropriated for (or allocated to) the main campuses, branch campuses and medical
centers (even if on the main campus). Medical center data should include appropriations for the
operation of colleges of medicine, dentistry, pharmacy and nursing, and teaching
hospitals, either lumped as one sum or set out separately as preferred.
- Include:
- sums appropriated for state aid to local public community colleges and
for operation of state-supported community colleges, and for
vocational-technical two-year colleges or institutes that are predominantly
for high school graduates and adult students;
- sums appropriated to statewide coordinating boards or governing
boards, either for board expenses or for allocation by the board to
other institutions or both;
- sums appropriated for state scholarships or other student financial aid;
- sums destined for higher education but appropriated to some other state agency (as in the case of funds intended for faculty fringe benefits that are appropriated to the state treasurer and disbursed by that office); and
- appropriations directed to private institutions of higher education at
all levels.
Exclude:
- Appropriations for capital outlays and debt service.
- Appropriations of sums derived from federal sources, student fees,
auxiliary enterprises and other non-tax sources.
