621 South Husband

Stillwater, OK 74074

April 27, 2017

Yuanliang Zhang
213 West Elm Ave
Stillwater, OK 74074

Dear Rep. Cory T. Williams,

My name is Yuanliang Zhang, a college student, I am writing you this letter to urge the state of
Oklahoma to stop further cutting down of budget for higher education. The need of higher
education has been growing greatly in the recent decade, the society is requiring more and more
people with higher education background to supply the workforce and many other aspects.
Higher education, especially public institutes, rely deeply on funding from the nation and the
states, although funding does not determine everything, it is an important factor in building up
quality of higher education. In the great recession, the budget cut for all aspect, including state
funding for higher education, was inevitable, but now things had become better and it is time to
at least stop cutting the budget, if not begin increasing it.

Enrollment in public higher education was up by nearly 90000or 8.6 percent, between the
beginning of the recession and the 2013-2014 academic year (Mitchell, 2016). Across the
country, the need of higher education had been growing. While the fallout of the last recession
disperse over the years, enrollment for higher education kept growing, increasing number of high
school graduate chose to enroll in higher education to learn professional skills. The situation
implies the societys value of higher education has been rising as many feels that higher
education background provide a securer future. Same situation happens in Oklahoma as well:
According to Kathryn McNutt in her report published in May 2016, both OSU and OU, two of
the states top class public universities had a record breaking number of enrollment and
application. OSU has enrolled 3700 more students while OU received 2200 more freshmen
applications. Whether it is importance of higher education increased in peoples mind, or the
need of higher educated workforce rise recently. Despite the reason, it is clear that higher
education play a more than significant role in current society, both for the U.S. and for
Oklahoma.

Public colleges and universities depend greatly on funding from government, federal and state.
Funding might not be the most important factor in higher education, many other aspects, such as
quality of faculties, students motivation, and even culture, together form the quality of higher
education. However, this does not mean that funding is dispensable: In his research article
published 2009, Zhang Liang made, with certain limitations, conclusions as such: A decline in
state appropriation, when other factors are held constant, would most likely lead to a reduction in
instructional expenditures. Although his research shows that the connection between state
funding and graduation rates is rather small, he pointed out that public higher education institutes
are not likely compensate the deduction in funding through internal resource reallocation. This
means that reducing public funding has a negative impact on the availability of resources for
universities and colleges. In McNutts report, OU provost Kyle Harper claimed that they have
lost some very valuable people, a lot of experience and a lot of accomplishment that brought
value to our state as a number of faculties were retiring to save money. I cannot find proof for
relations between losing skilled personnel and quality and outcome of public higher education,
but I am pretty sure that it wont be positive.

While more than half of the states in the U.S. are raising the funding for higher education,
Oklahoma is among those reducing it. Due to the recession, almost all states in the U.S. had
reduced their state funding, Oklahoma herself is 21.7% lower than before the recession
(Mitchell, 2016). Economic issue is not with in the discussion of this letter, but as UCO president
claimed in McNutts report: the quality of economic development and the quality of
education all go together. While tightening up the funding helps the budget of the state in short
term, it is going to ruin long term success that higher education might bring. Oklahoma was one
of the 12 states that were cutting down the funding for higher education in 2016 due to Mitchells
report. In the meantime, more than half of the states increased their funding towards the same
aspect. Oklahoma has her own issues to deal with, but if the cut of the state funding does not
stop, it is going to harm Oklahomas long term success among the states.

As an international person, it might be strange that I would go into such matter, but as a student
who study in the state of Oklahoma, I believe that I can have a word in it. I have no
dissatisfaction of the quality of higher education I am receiving, but I have seen and heard that
many programs are shutting down due to lack of funding in universities and colleges, for me, this
means many chances and opportunities are shutting down. It is true that my life should mainly
depend on myself, but I value the importance of life chances and believe that more opened doors
can lead to success. Such is the personal reason for me to write this letter

Higher education is capable of bringing long-term success for both individuals and society, as
more and more people get professional skills from colleges and universities, the economic would
most likely benefit from it. Funding from government plays an important role in the performance
of public higher education institute, so keep cutting the funding will not help the higher
education in Oklahoma to bring long term success. Keep cutting the funding will most probably
result in long term disadvantages for Oklahoma among other states. For these reasons, I believe
that stop cutting down the funding for higher education is vital to Oklahoma and people of
Oklahoma in many aspects. It is said that education is an investment towards future, so for a
better future of me, other students, faculties and universities and colleges as a whole, I urge the
state of Oklahoma to consider stop cutting down the funding for higher education.

Sincerely,
Yuanliang Zhang
Yuanliang Zhang

Professor Watkins

English Comp II TR 3:30

25 April 2017

Annotated Bibliography

Leachman, Michael, Masterson, Kathleen, and Mitchell, Michael. Funding Down, Tuition Up.

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. 15 Aug. 2016, www.cbpp.org/research/state-

budget-and-tax/funding-down-tuition-up#_ftn1. Accessed 20 May 2017.

This is a report that contains data, figure and short summaries that reflex the decrease in funding

for higher education by states in America. The main point of the article is to point out that cuts in

funding had harmed public colleges and universities in many ways thus pose threat to quality and

affordability of education that students, especially low-income students, receive. Some of its data

provide good comparison and contrast that can be used to support points in the letter, especially

when most other states raise the funding while minorities including Oklahoma keeps cutting.

Although the article is categorized as report instead of a scholarly article, its data was collected

from reliable sources and authors use scientific method to do the research, conclusions and

summaries are based on facts so it should be a valid source.

McNutt, Kathryn, Oklahoma Budget Cuts More Than Expected for Higher Education.

NewsOK, 29 May 2016, newsok.com/article/5501086. Accessed 20 April 2017.

This source is a newspaper article that focus mainly on budget cut over higher education in

Oklahoma for 2017, with a little data and more comment. The article points out that while need

for higher education keeps growing, the budget on the other hand, get cut more than expected,

and that it struck multiple public university. The fact and comments made by presidents of
colleges can be supportive to my point in the letter. It is a published local newspaper article thus

should have provided reliable truth and data.

Zhang, Liang, Does State Funding Affect Graduation Rates at Public Four-Year Colleges and

Universities? Educational Policy, Vol.23, Number 5, Sep 2009, p714-731.

This source is a published scholar article, its aspect of research mainly focused on the

connections between state funding and graduation rates at public four-year college and

universities. Its conclusion can be support of the point that state funding cut at some degree

influence the outcome of public colleges and universities.