State Priorities for Higher Education in 2023: Survey of SHEEOs

Public higher education leaders enter the 2023 legislative sessions with cautious optimism stemming from sizable budget surpluses in many states, economic growth, and mostly familiar political environments. Many states have built up budget surpluses due to a strong economic recovery, an infusion of federal stimulus dollars, and careful budgeting during the pandemic. State budget surpluses provide an opportunity for new investments in public higher education that will accelerate progress toward meeting state educational attainment goals, closing equity gaps, and advancing economic and workforce objectives. This paper provides insight into state policy priorities and concerns for higher education in 2023 through a survey of members of the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) following the 2022 midterm elections. The authors provided an initial list of issues based on common themes derived from the daily SHEEO policy updates, which include news and updates related to state and national higher education policy. From this list of issues, they asked SHEEOs to look toward 2023 and identify the importance of each higher education issue in their state. Respondents were also asked to provide context or additional information and details on each issue and were given the option to add additional issues to the list. Finally, respondents were asked how the 2022 election results will affect the direction of higher education policy in their states.