Wisconsin governor and Republican presidential hopeful Scott Walker signed into law a budget that destroys the integrity of public higher education institutions and threatens to spread into other Republican-controlled states. The budget does away with tenure and program protections at Wisconsin colleges by entrusting many decisions and regulations to the Wisconsin Board of Regents in a move consistent with Walker’s harmful labor rights track record.
Though those changes only affect Wisconsin schools, they may be closer to Louisiana than we would like.
This year, our state faced similar budget shortfalls and had to restructure regulations to fund higher education. Many of the ideas Louisiana legislators use to balance budgets come from other states and some are harmful. Our politicians have used trendy fiscal moves to project an image of responsibility, and this could be the next contagious idea.
State law previously ensured changes to college protections required action from the state legislature. Those decisions will now be made at the discretion of the state Board of Regents, a body appointed almost entirely by the governor with little oversight. The move consolidates power in the hands of the Governor’s Board.
The Louisiana Board of Regents is made up of 15 members, including a student representative. The governor selects each member of the Board except that student. Appointments to the Board are subject to Senate approval. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal appointed four new members to the Board of Regents this year, three of which have strong ties to him through campaign donations.
The effort to restructure power will allow teachers and programs to be dismissed from public universities at the behest of the Board of Regents, leaving students in limbo. Without stable legal footing, universities will have trouble providing programs that they can be confident will see students through to graduation.
Public institutions should be governed by publicly elected officials and not lumped under the authority of a board of the governor’s donors. If they cannot operate consistently, our schools will struggle to attract quality faculty and students and face difficult decisions when it’s time to draft a budget and every program is on the chopping block.
Radical policies like Walker’s will poison Louisiana’s struggling higher education systems. We must shut national politics out of our local debate and urge our elected officials to protect our schools from false promises that swirl around the country.
David LaPlante is a 20-year-old mass communication senior from Baton Rouge.