Volinsky: Lincoln's Promise Unfulfilled

By ANDRU VOLINSKY, InDepth NH

No not “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. . . .”

This. During the Civil War, eighty six years after the founding of our nation, President Lincoln signed the first Morrill Land Grant Act that resulted in the creation of land grant universities across the nation. Think UNH, U Maine, UVM, and U Mass. A second Morrill Act in 1890 added Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). A third addendum recognized tribal colleges in 1994.

There are just over 100 HBCUs, mostly across the southeastern portion of the US. The first HBCU was Cheyney University of Pennsylvania. It’s located just west of Philadelphia and was founded in 1837 by Richard Humphreys, a Quaker philanthropist who bequeathed a tenth of his estate to found the school, originally known as the African Institute. Cheyney was founded as a college for teachers.

Humphreys’ bequest would be like Elon Musk donating $100 Billion to found a university today, which is unlikely.

George Washington proposed the idea of land grant colleges in his address of 1796. A few states formed such schools on their own when southern states blocked federal action. The first Morrill Act was adopted during the Civil War, after the southern states seceded. The Illinois state legislature precipitated the federal action by directing its members of Congress to propose a federal statute. Thinking an easterner would have a better chance as sponsor, the Illinois delegation turned to Justin Smith Morrill of Vermont.

The first Morrill Act granted each state not in rebellion 30,000 acres of federal land which could be sold to create or support a state university that loosely focused on agriculture and the mechanical arts or engineering. States that didn’t have 30,000 acres owned by the federal government were permitted to choose land located outside of their state to raise funds. Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, for example, was the beneficiary of the sale of timber land located in Wisconsin.

The second land grant colleges law was passed in 1890 after Reconstruction had failed. Southern states could prove their state colleges were color blind in their admissions or use the federal grant to create a separate college system for Black students. Most chose the latter. Cooperative extensions at land grant colleges were added in 1914 to disseminate research to actual farmers.

Democratization

The purpose of the land grant institutions, in addition to funding research in specified areas, was to broaden access to college and university educations. None of the land grant universities or colleges are tuition free today. Most provide discounted tuition for in-state residents. Some of these schools have such steeply discounted tuitions that students move to the state to establish residency. A few states provide steep discounts or tuition free promise plans to enrolled tribal members who are residents of the state in which the college is located.

NH and Vermont have the highest average “sticker price” in the nation for their four year public colleges and universities in terms of tuition and fees of about $19,000/year. Add another $14,000 or $15,000 for food and housing in the UNH system. That’s about $33,000 to attend UNH. The lowest sticker price all in for tuition, fees, room and board is for the University of Wyoming system at $16,417, about half of what UNH charges its in-state students. Just to round us out, U Mass average tuitions and fees are $15,900 and U Maine’s are at $11,400. It’s $7600 a year cheaper to become a bear than a wildcat in terms of tuition and fees.

But, you say, not all students pay sticker price. There is financial aid.

Of course, but let’s look at student debt after attendance of college. This data isn’t broken out purely by attendance at a public college but public college attendance can be assumed to dominate.

The five states with the highest student debt are:

The five states with the least student debt are:

• Washington
• New Mexico
• California
• Utah
• Hawaii

From Wallet Hub:

New Hampshire has the second-biggest student loan debt problem. Borrowers owe an average of close to $40,000, the highest amount in the country. . . In addition, affordability challenges persist for students in New Hampshire. The state has the third-largest decline in state and local grants per in-state student, reducing the amount of aid students receive from public sources. On top of that, it has the sixth-lowest share of borrowers enrolled in income-driven repayment plans, limiting access to repayment options that could ease the burden of high student debt.

New Hampshire does not have a state student loan ombudsman, which limits how well students can have their complaints about loans addressed.

Supporting NH’s public colleges and universities is not a priority for NH’s legislature and governors. We’re the Live Free or Die state and this mantra is killing off our state’s public institutions, including our public colleges and universities.

Education appropriations vary considerably by state. Education appropriations per FTE [full time equivalent student] in 2025 ranged from $4,557 in New Hampshire to $25,468 in Illinois. Consistent with national-level decreases, education appropriations per FTE declined in 31 states and Washington, D.C., between 2024 and 2025. Despite nationally exceeding 2019 levels each year since, education appropriations per FTE remain below 2019 levels in eight states and Washington, D.C., with Wyoming (18.4% below) and Indiana (17.8% below) the farthest from 2019 levels in 2025.

Of course, the claim is NH doesn’t have the money to support its public colleges and universities but this problem is self-inflicted resulting from serious rollbacks of tax programs that produced state revenues since Republican governors have been in charge and generally acted with the assistance of (or at the demand of) Republican legislatures. Since Chris Sununu first became governor in 2016, business taxes have been rolled back to the tune of over $100 million a year and NH’s only tax on its most wealthy, the 100 year old Income and Dividends Tax was repealed, costing the state another $150 million a year. Governor Kelly Ayotte continued this trend of depleting state revenues with another very complex rollback of the business enterprise tax (BET) just this year.

Where does this leave NH?

You need to decide.

Ask your candidates for state and federal offices if they value higher education and what they will do to offer better financial supports. Can we reinvigorate college attendance with a federal land grant “shot in the arm?”

This doesn’t mean colleges and universities should avoid re-thinking their cost structures. This also doesn’t mean that everyone should go to a four year college. However, many of the concerns for keeping Lincoln’s promise also apply to two year community colleges, especially in NH which borders two states, Maine and Massachusetts, that offer tuition free community college plans for its residents. Maine also offers a $2500 credit against its state income tax for residents paying off college debt.

Last in the nation for state support for k-12 public education and among the lowest for state support of higher ed are distinctions that NH can live (or die) without.

This story was originally published by InDepth NH.