At Tuesday’s announcement of a proposed $141.5 million increase in state higher education funding for the state’s upcoming fiscal year budget, Gov. Bobby Jindal spent much of his time lauding the state’s economy and talking about what’s “best” for students.
His announcement follows years of cuts that have forced professors to go without pay raises, tuition to increase, programs seen as non-essential to be merged or disappear completely and buildings to literally crumble on top of students as the University awaits funding.
So although the proposed increase for higher education funding can definitely be seen as a positive step, there’s still a long way to go.
Almost a third of the money will be available only to those rated by an algorithm as the most employable for today’s “workforce demands,” Jindal said, meaning that this money would only go toward majors that have the highest payoff in terms of state investment.
For the nearly 75 percent of University students not enrolled in a STEM — science, technology, engineering and mathematics — major, that’s a slap in the face.
And while this WISE — Workforce and Innovation for a Stronger Economy — plan sounds great in a news conference, it’s somewhat disappointing that it took a letter from the collective heads of higher education on Thursday asking for Jindal’s support to get the governor to start thinking about investment in Louisiana students.
And while other leaders took their chance in the spotlight Tuesday to argue no one present was responsible for the state’s economic climate, University President F. King Alexander summed up his sentiments about the dismal situation into which Louisiana has allowed its higher education institutions to fall, calling this move to place higher education in the spotlight “a first for us in Louisiana, apparently.”
He also made his intentions for progress clear, saying funding for higher education has a direct, important impact on the state’s economic and social future.
We need to hold Alexander to these ideals and the promises he made when he came to Louisiana. Now that Jindal has blinked, it is up to Alexander — with his highly touted political connections — and the state’s other university leaders, to continue to stand up to the governor for higher education.
While Jindal’s speech made us wonder about the future of funding and college educations that don’t directly affect a bottom line somewhere, Alexander and the other heads of higher education from around the state give us hope.
They realize the WISE plan is a step forward, but let’s just hope they know it isn’t an acceptable endgame for anyone involved. As for Jindal, we’ll see if his newfound enthusiasm for higher education will continue on Friday when the full proposed state budget is released.