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Sunday, Feb. 14, 2010 | 2:05 a.m.
Hundreds of college students in Southern Nevada walked out of classes last week to protest impending state budget cuts that could decimate higher education.
Students from UNLV, Nevada State College and the College of Southern Nevada made their feelings known to legislators in a protest at the Sawyer State Office Building in downtown Las Vegas. The Legislature is expected to meet this month in a special session to consider cuts, which at this point don’t look good.
In Gov. Jim Gibbons’ State of the State speech last week, he said that education accounts for 54 percent of the state’s general fund spending and that education funding would have to be reduced. The governor did, after all, last year propose a budget that would have cut a third of the Nevada System of Higher Education’s budget.
Gibbons has yet to release all of his recommendations to close the nearly $900 million deficit, but education officials are preparing for a major cut — on top of the ones they took last year.
To the governor, this is simple. He likes to make an analogy that state government is like a family or a business, reasoning that when families or businesses face tough times, they tighten their belts. They do, but they also look at other ways to produce income. Gibbons, of course, won’t consider raising any revenue because it would violate his no-new-taxes pledge. Raising fees any further would price many students out of education.
The governor also won’t consider what huge cuts will do to the education system in Nevada, which is reeling from years of substandard funding. Indeed, he told people to “quit whining” about funding.
University system Regent Michael Wixom noted last week in the Las Vegas Sun that the cuts will result in “dismantling much of what we have built, primarily for the sake of keeping tax rates low.”
The Millennium Scholarship program, implemented under former Gov. Kenny Guinn with money from the state’s settlement with tobacco companies, encouraged students to stay in Nevada to attend college, and students had plenty of opportunity. Nevada’s colleges and universities have grown over the decades and now include specialty training in medicine, dentistry, law, nursing and teaching, among many other areas.
With cuts threatening the quality of the schools and the programs, Nevada System of Higher Education Chancellor Dan Klaich said he is concerned about a potential “brain drain.” Arguing that students will go to other states to study because of hefty cuts, Klaich said, “We will lose some of our best citizens who will never return.”
As Emily Richmond reported last week in the Sun, cuts will affect students of all ages, from recent high school graduates to adults trying to gain new career skills. Jennifer Cruz, 31, is a mother of four and a full-time UNLV student trying to get into the school’s competitive nursing program. The budget cuts could threaten those dreams.
“I’m worried about my children’s education and my education,” she said. “How far is this going to go?”
Good question.
The cuts threaten to take Nevada’s schools to a place they can’t afford to go.
You have to wonder what kind of education these school leaders actually received in college. You cannot keep the same level of spending when incomes are down across the state and school employees cannot expect to be immune from the cuts.
When the taxpayers have 25% less income you have to expect those living off taxing them to drop as well.
Maybe a good starting point for cuts in higher education would be the elimination of remedial classes at UNLV and the State College. If the incoming freshmen can't cut it send them back to College of Southern Nevada or adult high school until they are ready for college.
Keep the community colleges, which do what the public schools can't or don't in 12 years in terms of bringing students up to college-level skills in math and writing. Keep them affordable. Keep them open in all parts of the state, with a focus on training and for those students interested, feeding into the university system.
I think there is a serious question about whether this state can maintain two universities as structured over the long haul. Get a five-year funding plan for these institutions and stick to it. Decide what to keep or toss. Keep it affordable and raise admission standards.
I am with you there fosimmons...
Get back to the basics...
The three "r's..."
The Millennium Scholarship is the pull yourself up by your bootstraps, reward for 4 years of excellence in high school program that should be off limits. If the tuition is raised 25-35% it is going to set off a domino effect that does not bode well for the future of Nevada.
Parents have used this as a carrot in front of their kids noses for four years, now the worst Governor in the history of the United States wants to touch this with no looking at alternatives? How Gibbonsy.
Can anyone tell me what 2 cents a gallon in gas taxes will raise?
Nieman above said the state has 25% less than before and everyone needs to take less. I think an educators family with children in college will be asked to do 10 times in sacrifice what the typical citizen will have to give up.
The people who have tunnel vision on this (cut cut cut) are shallow and a bit dim. The scalpel should be administered by all the people in this state with shared pain by everyone, not used as a political knife.
Let's put the numbers in perspective. For FY 10 and 11 NSHE will have over $800 million in state appropriations. The $110 million cut (the high estimate) will be around 13% of all state appropriations. And given the fact that state appropriations make up about half of all revenue for UNR and UNLV we know the cuts, while large, will still be more than manageable.
Especially since the NSHE budget was growing almost 8% per year earlier in the decade.
The Department of Education will get by, just like the rest of us are having to do...
"We will lose some of our best citizens who will never return."
The brain drain is well underway. Newly minted teachers in the high demand areas of mathematics and sciences are leaving for jobs that pay starting salaries of $40,000 in other more livable and affordable states; states that understand the connection between an educated populace and a diversified economy. Nevada 30 year residents are tired of the empty promises of a stable revenue base and breathe a sigh of relief when their children attending college out of state on scholarship say they will never return.
Here's the problem with Patrick's perspective...
For every dollar of state funding cut from NSHE, the system loses several more because NSHE often takes taxpayer money and multiplies it through grants and contracts. So a state funding cut of 13 percent could easily balloon to well over 20-30 percent cuts in overall funding.
Yes, NSHE funding grew considerably over the last decade. But Nevada had to keep up with the Jones' in Arizona, Colorado and California. Yes, we could have passed a TASC law, but can you imagine where that would have left us competitively?
I'll agree that government is inefficient by nature. But unfortunately it's the best vehicle we've got for collective investment.
If low taxes were the solution to bringing in businesses, we would have seen it by now. It should be clear by now that businesses will tolerate higher taxes if it means they can use a quality education system to lure capable employees.
Brst,
The private sector would have had more money to expand. And frankly, the extra spending in higher education hasn't bought us anything meaningful, at least to undergrad students. The graduation rates are pitiful and UNR already spends above the median level and far above its neighbors - a whopping $30,290 per pupil in 2006 (the latest available from the US Department of Education).
Given that we continue to spend more and more on higher education (with most of the money funneling research and school amenities) and no boost in output (educated students) we may very well already be over invested in higher education.
PS, we did bring in lots of business. That is why Nevada was the fastest growing state in the nation for 30 years. Nevada's rapid expansion of government has been a recent phenomenon (to the point where tax collection per capita in Nevada ranks 25th in the nation).
Udde,
The US has one of the most expensive education systems in the world. Among OECD countries we rank in the bottom third for student achievement.
Higher education fairs better, but that, in part, is due to the competition between institutions rather than how much they spend.
There will be no major improvements in the educational system until a voucher system is put in place...
Patrick Gibbons wrote, "The private sector would have had more money to expand. And frankly, the extra spending in higher education hasn't bought us anything meaningful, at least to undergrad students. The graduation rates are pitiful and UNR already spends above the median level and far above its neighbors - a whopping $30,290 per pupil in 2006 (the latest available from the US Department of Education).
Given that we continue to spend more and more on higher education (with most of the money funneling research and school amenities) and no boost in output (educated students) we may very well already be over invested in higher education.
PS, we did bring in lots of business. That is why Nevada was the fastest growing state in the nation for 30 years. Nevada's rapid expansion of government has been a recent phenomenon (to the point where tax collection per capita in Nevada ranks 25th in the nation)."
The problem is that our Institutes of Higher Education(IHE)need officials focused on student proficiency and higher graduation rates. Over the last 10 years the data have shown that these school officials have NOT been focused on these two factors. The reality is that the public needs to constantly monitor IHE officials and FORCE them to focus on education improvement rather than remodels and new buildings. (In the K-12 levels this equates to being a thorn in the principal's side)
@LarryVegas
While rich parents might have the luxury of driving their children all over town to the 'best' voucher school the other 90% of Nevada doesn't have that luxury. Throwing other children under the bus in favor of a few never will be the answer. Arizona put their students on a voucher system and they are still neck and neck with Nevada for worst educations received in national rankings.
Last year was the biggest tax increase in the history of the state.
A few years back was then the biggest tax increase in the history of the state.
All that has done has increased the number of layoffs in the private sector.
We should leave work one day and protest.
Oh.....we can't do that.
We live in the real world.
@mywallet700
If my paycheck bounced and the payroll department was in the Grant Sawyer government building I sure as heck would have taken a day off work to go scream at the payroll clerk.
I'm pretty sure that's exactly what students did in their own way.
One does not have to be rich to drive their children to school.
Just maybe if the voucher system was put in place, parents would take more of an interest in the education of their children.
Also, public schools would be forced to shape up and eliminate some waste.
The only real resistance to the voucher system is the teacher unions...
Students took the day of to protest because their teachers told them to...
Protect the unions...
"Last year was the biggest tax increase in the history of the state."
Someone tell that to Larry, who still believes that Gibbons "held down taxes."
Who are you quoting there ksand00???
Please tell me you aren't that lazy. Scroll up four comments.
Would it have been so difficult for ksand00 to write:
SgtRock wrote that "Last year was the biggest tax increase in the history of the state."
Laziness goes along with "slow learners..."
Last year they increased the hotel room tax and they pushed up taxes on employment. That is right...no topo....they increased taxes on employment....like...they don't want companies to have employees.
Mining taxed at less than .5%. Gaming taxed at 6.75%. No corporate income taxes. Nevada doesn't have a spending problem. It has a problem asking big shots to pay their fair share.
My property taxes are killing me so I'm glad more colossal cuts are coming to UCLA.