Election Evokes Reminders of 1994 on Campus
If history is any guide, colleges may have less to fear from last week's Republican surge in Congress than they think.
Sure, party leaders have promised to slash spending on domestic programs—a category that includes student aid and research. But Republicans made similar threats 16 years ago, and the cuts weren't as severe as many had expected.
After Republicans took control of Congress in 1994, the arts and humanities endowments took big hits. But science budgets continued to grow, and spending on the National Institutes of Health doubled over five years. The Education Department, which some Republicans wanted to dismantle, saw its budget double over the 12 years the GOP controlled the House of Representatives. In the end, "the budgetary and policy changes were nowhere near as severe as we feared at the time," said Terry W. Hartle, senior vice president for government and public affairs at the American Council on Education. "There were plenty of anxious moments, but the cuts were not as deep as they could have been," said Mr. Hartle, who joined the council in 1993....
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Sure, party leaders have promised to slash spending on domestic programs—a category that includes student aid and research. But Republicans made similar threats 16 years ago, and the cuts weren't as severe as many had expected.
After Republicans took control of Congress in 1994, the arts and humanities endowments took big hits. But science budgets continued to grow, and spending on the National Institutes of Health doubled over five years. The Education Department, which some Republicans wanted to dismantle, saw its budget double over the 12 years the GOP controlled the House of Representatives. In the end, "the budgetary and policy changes were nowhere near as severe as we feared at the time," said Terry W. Hartle, senior vice president for government and public affairs at the American Council on Education. "There were plenty of anxious moments, but the cuts were not as deep as they could have been," said Mr. Hartle, who joined the council in 1993....