Bevin’s budget affects higher education
On Tuesday Jan. 26th, the annual budget address was given by the newly elected governor, Matt Bevin. Along with the salute to public workers for their work in clearing the streets during the recent snow storm and the metaphors for cleaning up the house of Kentucky, Bevin gave promises and small details towards his intended policies for education reform. While the biggest surprise was the lack of mentioning his drastic and highly controversial destruction of the art budget for the state, he did discuss his plans for budget reform of higher education.
“Kentucky will fund schools that incentivize outcomes that are specific to the things people want,” Bevin said during his address. “All the people in the world who want to study French literature can do so, they’re just not going to be subsidized by taxpayers like engineers will be.”
Bevin’s wish is to create a greater number of skilled workers straight out of university. This means he wants colleges to produce more engineers, scientists, and economists than what they already produce, because according to Bevin these are the types of jobs that Kentucky and the modern world need. Bevin’s plan to do this is to give benefits to universities that produce these outcomes, and to continue to cut those that do not.
Though the exact criteria that universities will have to meet is not yet known, it has left colleges all across the state raising their voices in concern.
“The 4% budget cut this upcoming fiscal year will mean more than 2.16 million dollars lost for Murray State,” President Bob Davies stated in an address to his own student body. “The proposed base reduction for fiscal year 2017 means there will be another cut of 4.32 million for our school.”
It is understandable that Bevin wants to produce a more educated Kentucky and that he wants to benefit schools that produce a specific workforce Kentucky needs. Every state needs engineers and contractors to evolve the workforce and the technology to help make other jobs available. This is especially needed in Kentucky, where a large part of the economy is the coal mining industry (which in itself is an unsustainable resource and harmful to the environment).
Kentucky does in fact need to produce a more industrious workforce, and that is directly related to university graduates.
However, something that Bevin needs to learn is that these budget cuts will stifle universities and drive up tuition prices for thousands of Kentuckians all over the state. Academic inflation has continuously proven to be a problem in the U.S., with tuition prices nearly tripling since 1982 (according to the National Center for Educational Statistics) and this constant of forcing universities to raise tuition prices has put a massive burden on the public.
The University of Kentucky as well as the Bluegrass Community and Technical College, which are known to all Kentucky students as reasonably priced education, have already stated their intentions to raise prices.
“The proposed budget would almost certainly mean tuition increases,” said president of Kentucky Community and Technical College System, Jay Box. “Especially since the KCTCS didn’t raise tuition this year.”
Another well-known Kentucky institution, Kentucky State University, has recently told of the dire stress the budget cuts put on their school.
“Kentucky State cannot withstand what is being proposed in the budget.” Said President Raymond Bruse. “If the budget as proposed is enacted, our options would be to declare financial exigency and/or prepare a closure plan.”
These developments put new students into a worsening position. So many high school seniors are unsure about how they will proceed after high school, and an increasingly more expensive, but necessary, education does not help these children make an easy decision. Many high school graduates, including those in Kentucky, count on in-state universities for cheaper tuition, even if it means not going to their college of choice. Now the most affordable option for most Kentucky graduates is raising their prices again and the governor is telling every university that they only want to have technical degree majors, in fact punishing schools that do not produce a certain amount of them.
Bevin himself graduated with a degree in Japanese and East Asian studies, and has clearly shown that those with diversity in thought and in culture can rise to aid any state, beyond even what could be possible from that of the engineers and scientists he wants to create. Perhaps the solution that Bevin wishes for is to have these technical graduates work in Kentucky, or to just have schools with more assured students who will graduate on time. Either way, Bevin’s decision to demote the status of graduates and universities that focus on humanities is not what Kentucky needs. Instead there should be higher incentives for the desired engineers and scientists that Bevin needs to stay and work in Kentucky. All which can be done without stifling the already stressed student population.