Two faculty members from Western Washington University authored a strong op-ed piece in the Sunday Bellingham Herald on the effect of proposed budget cuts on higher education. It’s worth a look. They say in part:
Universities cannot be turned on and off – it will take decades to recover from cuts of this magnitude. The classes, programs, professors, and students who disappear now won’t be coming back with the next uptick in the economy.
Despite the fact that almost everyone – including President Obama, Governor Gregoire, economic experts, and the business community – agrees that higher education is a key to economic recovery, the Washington state legislature is making it clear that education is not a priority for them.
They are obviously making very difficult choices in very tough times. But times are tough across the country, and no other state is cutting higher education as dramatically as Washington. The 21 percent to 25 percent cuts that the Legislature is proposing are, by a wide margin, the highest in the nation. In California, where the state budget situation is far worse than Washington, the cuts to higher education will probably be around 10 percent.
You can find the entire opinion piece here.