When Georgia’s newest four-year public college opened in 2006 it billed itself as the “campus of tomorrow.” It’s costing taxpayers a lot of money today.
The state has spent or allocated more than $200 million on Georgia Gwinnett College since it opened in Lawrenceville. The college launched just before the recession started, but it has been spared from many of the budget cuts that hit other campuses.
State funding for other fast-growing colleges such as Kennesaw State University, Georgia Perimeter College and Georgia State University dropped in recent years, while funding for Georgia Gwinnett increased each year from fiscal 2007 through 2011.
State spending on different agencies was cut by millions during that period, but the University System’s total spending increased by about 30 percent.
Colleges in the University System of Georgia refrain from criticizing one another publicly, but privately, college presidents say they wish they had Georgia Gwinnett’s money. That money wouldn’t have lowered the tuition students pay, but some college leaders said it could have allowed them to hire more professors or offer more classes.
In Monday's newspaper, the AJC publishes the second in a six-part series on how the university system spends its money. It's a story you'll get only by picking up a copy of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution or logging on to the paper's iPad app. Subscribe today.
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