THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 21, 1996 TAG: 9601200008
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines
Virginia's state colleges and universities have fallen behind several of their competitors in other Southern states in the level of taxpayer support per student. Gov. George F. Allen's latest budget proposes too little in new spending to help them catch up.
But the presidents of Virginia's state schools - including James Koch of ODU and Harrison Wilson of Norfolk State - are requesting that the General Assembly spend $330 million more in the 1996-98 biennium than Allen wants. They believe that's how much it will take to make their schools competitive again.
The presidents' wish list includes additional spending in five areas:
$100 million for faculty pay, $86 million more than the governor proposes. Some of Virginia's best professors are leaving the state for better pay elsewhere. If the state continues to lag, a brain drain is possible.
$31 million for student financial aid. High tuition costs threaten to deny more and more students a chance at a public education.
$99 million for technology, including computers and networks.
$36 million for other equipment. Allen proposes not to fund an equipment trust fund.
$78 million for the specific requests of each institution.
The presidents aren't alone in proposing more funding for higher education than the governor recommends; the State Council of Higher Education proposes the same. Clearly, the friends of the state's colleges and universities have mounted a full-court press to achieve their goal of $330 million more.
The full-court press can't guarantee success, but some progress is ensured by the commitment by the preponderance of state legislators to support greater funding for state colleges and universities after years of belt-tightening compelled by state curbs on higher-education spending.
Where's additional money supposed to come from? There's the rub, of course. By rejecting Governor Allen's advice to end the Democrats' control of the General Assembly, Virginia voters last fall implicitly endorsed heftier expenditures for elementary, secondary and higher education. But the electorate is not disposed to pay higher taxes. The alternative is to modify the governor's budget, allocating more for higher education and less for other things, essentially robbing Peter to pay the professors.
Should the money come from cuts in prison expenditures? No way. Virginians wants violent criminals locked up for long periods. Chop Medicaid for the poor? Not so easy. Save on welfare by pushing a portion of its recipients into jobs? There are no big savings there - if anything, putting welfare recipients to work will require more public spending rather than less. Eliminate jobs being performed by state government that colleges and universities could do as well and at less cost for themselves? That would be productive, but wouldn't yield anything like $330 million.
Tax increase? Only a brave or reckless legislator would urge any one. Raising the state sales tax from 4.5 cents on the dollar to 5 cents would generate sufficient revenue to make Virginia's colleges and universities competitive with other state-supported higher-education institutions in the Southeast and slow the migration of top professorial talent to other states. But a popular Republican who would cut Virginia's already low taxes if he could sits in the governor's chair and could win political points by vetoing a tax increase.
The General Assembly confronts tough choices if it is to do right by higher education. But choose it must or Virginia will continue to fall farther behind in higher education to the detriment of its young and the economic well-being of the state. by CNB