Letter: Jindal education legacy one of pain

Gov. Bobby Jindal’s sword has once again struck the state’s public universities. Last month, the Jindal administration announced a midyear higher education budget cut of $22 million. With this latest cut, the Jindal administration — aided and abetted by “our hands are tied” state legislators — has reduced university funding by $448 million since 2009. Wow!

How much further can the governor’s “cut and slash” policy towards the universities go before permanent harm is done to the state’s efforts to climb up from the nation’s bottom? To paraphrase Gov. Jindal, all actions taken by the state should be seen through a simple prism — will this (frequent university budget cuts) help Louisiana’s economy? New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu recently called the higher education cuts “the single biggest mistake in economic development in Louisiana.” Interestingly, Tim Teepel, a close adviser to Gov. Jindal, in an interview on WRKF Radio during the last legislative session said, “We can’t as a state continue to lag behind the rest of the nation.”

The performance of the state legislators throughout the governor’s assault on the university budgets has been pitiful. Based on press reports, at least some lawmakers seem to think that everything is all right at the universities as long as the “lights are on” and students are graduating. As a state, we have to be smarter than that.

Since the governor and legislators will not, who in the state with political influence will champion the cause of the universities? What role is the politically powerful Louisiana Board of Regents (the board that coordinates higher education policy) willing to play in helping the universities obtain better funding?

Apparently no role at all, based on the results of the Regents’ January meeting where the new chairman and vice chairman made two startling announcements: They first rejected Higher Education Commissioner Jim Purcell’s plea for help in securing more money for the universities and then they told their fellow members to quit complaining about the budget cuts. Unbelievable! Have the Regents forgotten whose interest they are sworn to serve?

What will be Gov. Jindal’s legacy to the state regarding higher education? Will it be the removal of all vestiges of quality from the universities, or will he finally fulfill the promises he made to the higher education community and to true believers like this writer when he ran for governor in 2007? Those who believe that Louisiana has never come close to reaching its vast potential expect the former but hope and pray for the latter.

Howard Franques

retired lawyer

Lafayette

Comments

1) Comment by DMJ - 30/01/2013

"As a state, we have to be smarter than that." And herein lies the problem. We're not.

2) Comment by agagent - 30/01/2013

Jindal did not create Louisiana’s biggest budget headache: Medicaid. Liberals created Medicaid. For the most part the federal government sets the Medicaid rules and states have to “dance to their tune.” PBS projected a 72% increase in the cost of the Louisiana Medicaid program from 2010 to 2012. The report said the Louisiana Medicaid cost $1.5 billion in 2010 and was projected to cost $2.6 billion in 2012. The increased cost of Medicaid had to be taken from other parts of the state budget, including higher education. Last year the mid-year budget deficit was over $900 million, with most of the deficit caused Medicaid. Higher education is in the section of the budget not protected from mid-year cuts so higher education and health and hospitals were cut to fill the Medicaid deficit. The larger protected part of the budget did not receive the mid-year cuts.

3) Comment by swinham - 30/01/2013

Both Mr. Franques and tradewinns make some excellent points!!!

4) Comment by tradewinns - 30/01/2013

if we only had someone other than jindal, everything would be wonderful. there would not be a recession, the money would be flowing in and the taxpayer would still be improving his/her standard of living. the state could get all it needs from it's citizens and they are doing so well noone would even notice the additional taxes. THERE'S SOMETHING WRONG WITH THE PICTURE I JUST PAINTED? WE ALL KNOW IT'S JINDALS FAULT! THE DEMOCRATS GAVE ME THIS SET OF ROSE COLORED GLASSES I USE EVERY DAY. now get real, the state and nation are still mired in a recession. i dont care where and when it began, we have to go from here to improve. if you dont like jin dal's cuts, where would you cut? remember you can not just keep money flowing out as you have less coming in to divide. i'm waiting to hear your response. and by the way, college professors (in the vast majority of cases) have the easiest well paid jobs in the nation (excluding congress).

5) Comment by [e-mail] - 30/01/2013

Runaway escalation of University money gobbling has got to stop at some point; why not now?

6) Comment by crazycajun - 30/01/2013

Mr. Franques,you're not talking about the little Timmy whose only dealings with college was to drink beer with people who actually went to college. Is that the same little Timmy? LOL

7) Comment by SuzanneMS - 30/01/2013

It's already too late. The harm has already been done. LSU's accreditation is in jeopardy. The university is hemorrhaging faculty, staff and mid-level administrators who actually do the work of running the university. Hiring has been frozen for years, with no raises of any kind, not even cost-of-living. The faculty and staff who do remain are trying to do the work of 2 or 3 people, which means that students are not receiving the education that they are paying more and more for. What used to take hours to accomplish now take days or weeks. Applicants for the few positions that are allowed to be filled are bottom-of-the-barrel; many are not even marginally qualified, but they figure they might as well give LSU a shot, since the competition will be weak -- and they are right. How anyone can not recognize that Jindal's goal is to destroy public education in Louisiana and replace it with private, for-profit institutions is beyond me. Of course, it was beyond me how anyone in 2007 could look at Jindal's record with ULL and DHH and not know what he would do as governor. Far too many people in Louisiana did not do their due diligence as voting citizens.

8) Comment by spqr - 30/01/2013

Jindal is not on the job to enhance our opportunities. He has declared war on numbers to make him look good in Washington DC. To hell with the people.