THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 18, 1994 TAG: 9412170018
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 53 lines
The Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission, the toughest grader that state agencies face, has just evaluated the State Council of Higher Education of Virginia. The council won favorable ratings in 16 of 17 areas.
On the JLARC curve, that's a solid A. The commission itself described the report as unusually positive.
The report is also timely. For the education strike force of Governor Allen's Commission on Government Reform would scuttle SCHEV by (1) reducing the council to ``a specialized advisory study group''; (2) transferring many of SCHEV's duties to the education secretary; (3) having the director appointed by the governor, not the council itself.
In saner times the General Assembly would have rejected these steps outright. Forward-looking legislatures of the past helped shape the state system of colleges into a national model. Past lawmakers understood and acknowledged the public benefits of a strong, diverse system whose colleges are prominent on lists of the nation's best. They also saw the prudence of giving the council and the colleges latitude in pursuing the higher-education mission.
But the mood has changed in the '90s. Higher education took a budgetary beating from Governor Wilder. Now, the Assembly's Democrats are wary of an electorate that is hostile to government, even to such obvious public assets as colleges. These lawmakers know that the shift of relatively few seats in '95 would bring Republican majorities to both houses.
If thinking such as the education strike force's prevails, Virginia and Virginians will be the poorer.
Under Gordon K. Davies' direction, SCHEV gives comprehensive oversight to the public colleges in areas like capital outlay, budgeting, enrollment projections, curriculum recommendations and student services. It administers grants to individual institutions for development of programs. The council also has been the catalyst for making the state system and private colleges complementary.
SCHEV's leadership has pushed Virginia ahead of many other states in turning its institutions into models for higher education in the 21st century.
``This business of coordination,'' said Davies, ``is as much an art as a science.'' In either case, JLARC likes the way the council has been doing its business.
Can there be a stronger vote of confidence for continuing to do it that way? by CNB