Seattle Chamber of Commerce President J. Tayloe Washburn had a good opinion piece on the Seattle PI blog laying out a strategy for supporting job growth and innovation in the economy. On higher education, Washburn wrote:
Invest in Higher Education, Our Human Infrastructure. There is no question that the most successful regions in future decades will be those that have large numbers of educated workers. Washington state has made impressive progress in many areas in recent years in expanding its breadth and depth in graduate degrees in many sectors.
The current state budget deficit and other economic challenges have put these investments at risk. While the state legislature faces a range of very tough challenges and tradeoffs in trying to balance the budget, it must recognize how short-sighted it would be to cut off on our greatest investment in a strong future economy–our institutions of higher education. Cutting enrollment and programs at UW and WSU will invariably lead to our best researchers and faculty leaving the state. We cannot afford this and must redouble our efforts as a state to continue to invest in our future by keeping our institutions of higher education strong.
You can read the entire piece here.