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Dan Klaich, Chancellor. Nevada System of Higher Education, greets UNLV President Neal Smastrek before the State of the University address Thursday, September 22, 2011.
Friday, March 30, 2012 | 2:02 a.m.
Dear Readers,
For years, there has been a debate over how higher education in Nevada is funded, and part of that discussion includes the complaint by southerners that UNLV gets short shrift.
Here’s how the system works: The colleges and universities collect fees and tuition and send them to Carson City to the state’s general fund. The state, which adds additional money, then uses a complex algorithm that few people understand to determine which institution gets what. That can lead to a disparity in funding.
For example, last year the Sun looked at the 2010 budget and found that UNR received $9,477 per student while UNLV was given $7,564 per student.
To measure it another way: UNLV received $1.24 for every dollar it sent to Carson City while UNR received $2.68. Great Basin College in Elko received $3.58 for every dollar it sent in. (And we haven’t yet delved into Nevada State College in Henderson and the College of Southern Nevada.)
With results like that, it’s no wonder that the state’s funding formula has been criticized, and it’s expected to change.
Last year, the Legislature passed a bill by Sen. John Lee, D-Las Vegas, that created a panel to study the funding formula and report back before next year’s session. The panel recently hired SRI International (formerly called the Stanford Research Institute) of Menlo Park, Calif., to do a full study.
Dan Klaich, the chancellor of the Nevada System of Higher Education, has also proposed a plan to fix the funding formula. His plan is expected to be reviewed by the legislative panel, as well.
This is an important issue because higher education can be a driver of the state’s economy, training a workforce and providing businesses with expertise. A report by the Brookings Institution last year outlining a plan to diversify the economy noted higher education’s important role and said Nevada had failed to properly fund it. It called for changes in the university system to better help the economy, and it called for the overhaul of the funding formula.
Next week, the Sun’s editorial board is meeting with Klaich, and we’d like your help. What would you ask him? In addition to the funding formula, are there other things you’d like to know?
We’ll take some of the questions and pose them to Klaich, and we’ll print the answers in a future edition.
You can send your questions to: letters@lasvegassun.com (put the word questions in the subject line). You can also fax your questions to: 383-7264.
To help you out, we’re providing you some of the material that we’re using to prepare for the meeting. It includes:
• A 2011 Sun story about the way colleges and universities are funded, complete with a terrific graphic walking through the steps.
• A recent Sun story about the proposed change in the way the higher education system is funded.
• A Reno Gazette-Journal story about the issue.
• Here’s the website for the legislative committee studying higher education funding. You can find agendas and minutes, and if you go to the bottom of the page and click on the hyperlinks to the individual meetings, you can find the extensive material the panel receives.
• The Nevada System of Higher Education’s proposal on how to fund colleges and universities can be found on the site. Look on the right side in the green box.
• A 2009 look at higher education funding from UNR is here. Following this link opens a pdf file.
Thanks in advance for your help.
Best,
Matt
Matt Hufman is the assistant managing editor/opinion.
Why are the "99%" subsidizing the soon-to-be-rich "1%" who are attending "higher education" facilities? Who brainwashed the masses into believing this is either right or necessary? The vast majority of Americans do not attend "higher education" facilities and do not benefit financially from them, so why are they forced, through taxes and subsidies, to pay the way for the "elitists" who do? Entrepenuers take risks with their money everyday by investing in businesses, why shouldn't future lawyers, doctors and engineers do the same? What makes them so "special" that we all have to pay for their "investment" in the future? All you "liberals" should be outraged at the shift of wealth from the poor and middle-class to the soon-to-be-rich 1%'s. Let them pay their own way!
Well Matt, hope your backyard is clean and you have a good supply of "impact resistant" helmets. You have now ventured publicly into a long standing "taboo zone". These politicians and their rustic minded bumpkins of the northern territories of Nevada are not going to be happy with you. These provincial light-fingered kleptomaniacs are not going to sit idly by and watch Southern Nevadans take back what they have traditionally stolen from us "southerners" for many years.
Granted, the northern forces are not as strong as they used to be. So, you just might survive this, Matt. However, don't get too complacent. It's never a good idea to underestimate your opponents.
Matt, I'm going to get to my question in just a minute or two.
But first, I want to pose this example. During the administration of Governor Kenny Guinn, he came with his entourage from Carson City to visit the state institution that I worked here in Southern Nevada. Of course, this institution was window dressed from that of a moldy old dilapidated structure to impress the governor. However, I questioned the governor on the great disparities of funding between the northern and southern sectors. His reply? "I'll look into it." Wonderful reply. I believed that as much as I would if I was told the check is in the mail. As the governor's entourage began to make some distance from my work station, a state official from Northern Nevada approached me and whispered in my ear. "You'll get what we give you, and that's it." Now this reply, I believed to be true.
There is a deep dislike, if not absolute hatred between the northern and southern regions of Nevada. I don't stand firmly on a golf courses' "putting surface of hate", but I'm certainly positioned on the fringe of the green standing, and watching with a wedge in hand.
Here is the bottom line, Matt. I didn't trust these northerners back then, and I don't trust them now here in Nevada. You would be wise to watch your back while pursuing this subject as a journalist.
So, now my question is this. Since studies and audits on this issue of funding disparities has been proven between the northern and southern regions of Nevada, there must be a determined amount of funding that has been misappropriated. When can Southern Nevada expect to begin receiving restitution payments from the regions of Northern Nevada?
With half our Nevada HS grads not making the grades, emphasizing in state college and university attendance is counter intuitive. Let's provide options for in-state students to college/university attendance in the form of trade and craft school training. Let's use educational practicality instead of ivory tower vision.
Carmine A. DiFazio
When the topic of discussion is economic development, the Sun's reporting would seem to indicate that experts believe strategic, targeted funding is the key.
However, when it comes to higher education (an undisputed aspect of economic development) the discussion always seems to turn to "equity."
Question for Klaich: Should the benchmark for success of the new funding formula be equity or excellence?
Yes, his answer will probably be "both." However, I would hope he would say that excellence is the goal even if it requires inequity.
For too long the North-South rivalry has doomed the system to mediocrity. For once, it would be nice to pretend we're a single state and make decisions accordingly. That would mean one flagship university (to where high-potential students travel and board), one regional university, and geographically based community colleges. Historically, this is how the system is set up and it shouldn't be dismantled to pursue the mediocrity inherent to North-South equity.
The following is a resolution that I'm asking for the NSEA - the state's teacher's union to review and consider. I also added similar information to the Clark County Plank while participating in the education committees. We need to ask for and receive a more fair funding. Vegas money needs to stay in Vegas.
RESOLUTION
WHEREAS Clark County Nevada provides at least 75% of Nevada's Total Revenue.
WHEREAS Clark County Nevada provides public education services to 71% of the K-12 student population in Nevada (2010/2011 Total student enrollment - 437,057 - Clark County Enrollment - 309,749 [http://www.nevadareportcard.com/])
WHEREAS Clark County Nevada receives $7,757 per student when the overall average is $8,515 [http://www.nevadareportcard.com/]
WHEREAS some counties in Nevada received as much as $25,460 per student with Clark County trailing well behind all other counties in Nevada.
WHEREAS the majority of NSEA's member are from Clark County
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT:
RESOLVED
NSEA needs to work toward lobbying the legislature for proportional funding because at least 75% of the state revenue comes from Clark County, 71% of the K-12 students are educated in Clark County, we respectfully ask that three quarters of the K-12 education monies should be returned to Clark County to fund Clark County's K-12 public schools.