As lawmakers tackle a $900 million plus mid-year shortfall, thousands of students, faculty and administrators from throughout the state shared the Capitol steps Wednesday with the governor and a host of legislators to gather for full funding of higher education.
The rally, which initially felt more like a party than a cry for policy changes, included a disc jockey, marching band, cheerleaders and mascots as each school bussed students, some from hours away, to Baton Rouge to flood the statehouse.
But students, administrators and legislators took to the podium and decried the current proposed cuts to higher education, giving lofty and sobering remarks urging lawmakers to work across party lines to find solutions.
Each higher education system president gave a short speech, recalling eight years of continuous cuts to college and university budgets. LSU President F. King Alexander, who has vocally lambasted more cuts to universities, again called for an end to the state’s disinvestment in schools.
“We want to see graduation as the number one issue in this state, not incarceration,” Alexander said.
Rep. Katrina Jackson, D-Monroe, introduced a concrete solution — a one cent, “clean penny” sales tax increase, which is the cornerstone of Gov. John Bel Edwards’ plan to save the state from financial armageddon. The plan is expected to raise nearly $1 billion in the next year.
Edwards reminded students of his presence at rallies for higher education last year, and said he can now enact meaningful change for schools hit hard by funding reductions during the Jindal years. But he also maintained that he inherited one of the largest budget deficits in Louisiana history and such change will not be easy.
“We can stop these devastating cuts to higher education,” Edwards said. “But we have to be mindful. We have the largest budget deficit in our state’s history. So we have to work together because I can’t do this alone.”
Louisiana is among the lowest in the country for state support to higher education, and under the division of administration’s “best case scenario,” requiring tax increases to pass through both houses, higher education would be cut roughly $68 million, including a $26.4 million reduction in TOPS funding, which was absorbed by universities.
Southern University alumnus and state Rep. Ted James, D-Baton Rouge, gave an impassioned speech to the roughly 2,000 students, following Edwards’ and Jennings Republican Rep. Blade Morrish’s remarks.
“The decisions are simple,” James said. “The solutions are easy. We cannot afford to allow millions of dollars to go to out of state corporations and not our classrooms.”