We think it’s safe to say Gov. Jay Nixon is playing a really rough baseball game with the UM System, as well as other state colleges and universities.
Beginning of the game? Tuition increases. Though college students across the state appreciated Nixon’s tuition freeze for a couple years, the large tuition increase last year didn’t make it worth it. Strike one.
Then we got to be surprised by Nixon’s new proposal to funding higher education. He wants to make it based on performance, where colleges and universities will receive funding based on whether they meet goals they have set for themselves. In other words, let’s recreate the failed No Child Left Behind law for universities. Strike two.
And now, automatic college scholarships awarded to Missouri high school students from the state are as low as they can be by state law. Strike three.
Three strikes and higher education’s out.
But higher education isn’t the only state “program” this has happened to and students recognize that. Nixon is not doing anything to higher education that he isn’t doing to every other state program, especially the 45 he has been sued by for unconstitutionally withholding funds from to pay for disaster relief. Higher education just happened to take all its hits over a very short course of time, resulting in a baseball game where universities were dealt a hand almost as bad as the Chicago Cubs and the World Series.
The fact is, funding for state programs and higher education isn’t coming anytime soon, and cutting scholarships and pressing to make higher education funding based on performance are not the answers to solve this. Nixon definitely shouldn’t rely on more tuition increases (though we’re sure he will) to make up the difference, when he relies on college students in Missouri repeatedly to lower the drop-out rate and become good additions to society. (By the way, a large reason for students dropping out of college is lack of financial aid and struggling to pay for that degree. Ironic, huh?)
The real problem that neither the state governments nor the federal government has the answer to is the economy. The funding cuts and predicted cuts are all based on slower economic growth across the country. Let’s be frank: This is a double-dip recession and we have no idea how to handle it.
In the meantime, higher education will be in the dugout, along with other state programs waiting for government to step up to the plate because someone really needs to figure out how to hit a grand slam. Lack of funding isn’t going away anytime soon.