NAHEFFA/CEFA

           I must start by saying that this was a tough organization to research and report on to everyone.  The National Association of Health and Educational Facilities Finance Authorities, or NAHEFFA, is a new organization with relatively little history except through its affiliates.  The organization began when the National Council of Health Facilities Finance Authorities and the National Association of Higher Educational Facilities Authorities merged in 2008.  It is made of numerous organizations across the country that share the NAHEFFA’s focus of providing capital to non-profit healthcare and educational organizations to enhance their productivity (“About Us,” 2008).  The California Educational Facilities Authority (CEFA) is one of these organizations.

            In agreement with NAHEFFA’s overall focus, CEFA has the mission of providing “students with better access and broader opportunities in higher education by providing qualified non-profit private higher education institutions with the assistance needed to reduce their capital costs of financing academic related facilities through a tax-exempt revenue bond program” (“California Educational Facilities Authority Mission statement,” 2011).  CEFA is a part of the state’s treasury department and works every year toward financing bonds, equipment, student grants, and student loans (.  After reading their mission and purposes, it is not hard to see the potential influence that the decisions it, and other organizations like it, make.  Further, by participating in the NAHEFFA, smaller organizations like CEFA are given a much larger platform on which to advocate their cause. 

            A running tally of the financial assistance distributed by the organization can be found on its website, http://www.treasurer.ca.gov/cefa/, but each year CEFA publishes a complete report of all distributed capital.  According to the report, CEFA authorized the financing of nearly 1.3 billion dollars in bonds for several colleges in California in 2010.  The funds were used by the institutions to improve and update various buildings from libraries to residence halls.  Including the bonds approved in 2010, CEFA holds 123 bonds worth over 4.6 billion dollars.  Combine that figure with the millions of financial aid dollars made available to students through the Cal Loan (needs-based) and CalEdge Loan (credit-based) Loan programs and one can see how important CEFA’s activities and decisions are to California’s private colleges and universities.

            Because the report discussed above deals only with the number side of California’s higher education finance, it is obvious what CEFA’s (and the state as whole) opinion is.  Seeing the investments that the organization (as well all of those made by the others affiliated with NAHEFFA) and the needs that those investments meet makes it clear that CEFA and NAHEFFA are dedicated to providing the means necessary to help private colleges and universities to provide a high quality education for its students.      

References

About Us. (2008). Retrieved October 18, 2011, from http://www.naheffa.com/about.html

California Educational Facilities Authority Mission Statement. (2011). Retrieved October 18, 2011, from http://www.treasurer.ca.gov/cefa/mission.asp

California Educational Facilities Authority. (2010). 2010 Annual Report. Retrieved from http://www.treasurer.ca.gov/cefa/annual/2010annual.pdf