Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, September 16, 1993 TAG: 9309150348
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RUTH S. INTRESS RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Virginia college students pay more than their peers in nearly every state to get their degrees.
That's because Virginia long ago decided students should foot a hefty share of their own education bills. The tradeoff is that they enjoy a modest tax rate.
The arrangement worked fine in richer times. Then, slipping finances prompted the state to cut 20 percent from college budgets starting in 1989. Virginians, who used to pay 30 percent, now shoulder about half the cost of their college educations.
It looks like it's only going to get worse.
The state is looking to take another 10 percent to 15 percent bite from college budgets as it faces a looming $500 million shortfall and demands to pay for other programs.
College presidents say it's time for legislators to raise taxes. Only eight states have tinier per-student appropriations than Virginia.
The 1992 General Assembly defeated a proposed sales tax increase for education, in part because of the governor's opposition. Douglas Wilder, running for the U.S. Senate, believes his political popularity is rooted in fiscal conservatism. Neither of the major candidates out to replace him has suggested raising state taxes.
The Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations in Washington says its research shows that Virginia could raise taxes significantly without bringing them even to the national average or to the level found in many surrounding states.
But state officials, hearing about little-used programs and teachers who don't teach, say colleges can do more with less.
Both sides may be right, but both solutions take guts.
Never has leadership been so vital - or void.
"Institutions are floundering as to their mission, what their mission should be," said James Madison University President Ronald E. Carrier. "We need an overall plan for Virginia."
Schools simply don't know where to begin, said Gordon Davies, director of the State Council of Higher Education. "They're puzzled how to change and what changes to make."
In Wisconsin, the state controls the colleges. Virginia prides itself on its independent schools. The state controls the purse-strings, but boards of visitors decide how to spend money. The state council acts as an intermediary but lacks real power.
That system is both the backbone and the Achilles heel of Virginia higher education. Virginia colleges, praised worldwide, have been free to diversify and excel. But they're used to competing for prestige and money, not cooperating for the good of Virginia's youth.
No one argues that Virginia's 39 colleges should all be big research institutions like the University of Virginia and Virginia Tech. Yet many Virginia schools are pushing research or scouting land for campus expansion or adding graduate-level programs.
"We try to outdo each other," said JMU's Carrier. "We may not say that, but we do. We're competing with ourselves unnecessarily."
How do you bring together schools that differ in personality and in priorities? George Mason University President George Johnson said it's "very hard for us to advocate a common agenda."
Arnold R. Oliver, community college system chancellor, said getting colleges to surrender their self-interests for the sake of change is almost impossible. "Politics is a very real player," he said.
With no one leading, it's easy to pass the buck.
The presidents are fighting for shares of dwindling state money. Gubernatorial candidates George Allen and Mary Sue Terry say it's up to the governor to rein in free-spending universities. Wilder says the college presidents must stand up to faculties and demand program cuts and heavier teaching loads.
Even if the schools economize, money remains a problem.
Next decade, the state's colleges are expecting 65,000 new students. They'll need more teachers and an estimated $1 billion worth of new buildings.
"We have more people wanting to get into our institutions, and at the same time we have less money from the state," said VCU President Eugene P. Trani.
GMU's Johnson said, "We see what the paradox is. The No. 1 priority for the electorate is education, without distinction between K-through-12 and higher ed. On the list of priorities for new taxes, higher education is No. 14."
The state council wants to put scarce money where it's most needed and best used. Last year, it advised giving more money to schools whose professors carry the heaviest teaching loads or where enrollment is growing. UVa and Virginia Tech, which would get less money than other schools under the plan, saw it as a declaration of war.
The council diluted the plan to win its approval but continues to hold firm for change.
Wilder says the state council may need to be beefed up and allowed to police state schools. He'd also give colleges a deadline for change - this coming spring.
Davies, the council's executive director, says he could better encourage innovation if he had $50 million in incentive money to reward schools finding new ways to teach more efficiently.
Again, it's a money question. The latest round of threatened state reductions makes it seem more likely that lack of cash, not incentives, will push the colleges into concerted action.
"Some people in higher education have been hit on the side of the head enough they've recognized it's time to get together and change the way they are doing things," said Old Dominion University President James V. Koch. "We have to seek common ground."
by CNB