Better campuses, fewer students and lower quality education?

By Evan Rohar

It is interesting the things university presidents focus on when they are faced with a potential 23% cut to their budgets and have the opportunity to meet with the governor. Here are some excerpts from a Seattle PI article on a meeting Gov. Gregoire had with "business and education leaders" on how to stimulate the state's economy:

"Transportation projects are likely to make up a big part of the stimulus plan, which Gregoire said she'll announce in January. And the state's universities -- maybe most notably the UW -- plan to aggressively lobby the state to fund a list of campus building projects using that same line of reasoning.

"At the end of the two-hour meeting, members of the round table said maintaining an educated work force also emerged as a top priority. The state's public universities and community colleges have been told to prepare for deep cuts -- possibly as high as 20 percent of their current state funding.

"UW President Mark Emmert and Washington State University President Elson Floyd were at Monday's meeting. Afterward, they said both universities are poised to start new campus construction projects in the next few months." ("Governor vows push of big stimulus plan," 12/8/08)

If the governor and legislators cut the higher education budget by 23 percent (the new number the legislature is floating), will improved or new buildings on campuses really matter? If "maintaining an educated workforce emerged as a top priority," why is the only investment being proposed in the construction part of education? Furthermore, leaders from primary education were conspicuously absent from the meeting. If people don't have good primary educations, it follows that they will have trouble succeeding in college.

Construction jobs are important, but so is education (for the future as well as providing jobs in the present). We need both.

Related articles:

• Seattle Times Gregoire hears economic recovery ideas