Hey Elected Official - What’s Your Plan for Higher Education?

The state of Higher Education is headed for disaster in Colorado.  Over the last 30 years, the state of Colorado has passed a number of initiatives that resulted in strict budget constraints and mandatory spending formulas for some parts of communities like K-12 education.  These policies have resulted in massive cuts in state spending in higher education and steep tuition hikes.  At the same time, financial aid programs have failed to keep up.

The result is that more and more students cannot afford a higher education. The average student is working longer hours to make ends meet which results in poorer academic performance, missing out on extra-curricular opportunities and extended stays in college to complete a degree.  Others are borrowing more with the average student graduating with $20,000 or more in debt just from higher education costs. The result is fewer students able to afford pursuing public service careers and many weighted down with repayments into their 50s. 

Finally, rising tuition has not completely filled the funding gap so those who can afford school are finding 500 person classes, fewer advising and counseling resources, and hurdles to graduating in four years because they can’t get into mandatory classes.

There is little hope on the horizon that this situation with change.  The current economic recovery is not predicted to see a large increase in state revenue, federal recovery dollars are projected to dry up soon and the state’s budget constraints will squeeze even more money from higher education.  This legislative session, the Governor and state legislature are looking to cut $1 billion from the state budget with higher education a prime target. Some have proposed privatizing the university systems in Colorado but this undermines the principle that higher education is a public good that is in the people of Colorado’s best interest to support.

It does not have to be this way.  The state of Colorado needs major fiscal reform to be able to maintain a quality, affordable and accessible system of higher education. Unfortunately, our politicians are more focused on scoring political points than figuring out the best way to fund higher education in the future and making the tough decisions that save our higher education system. 

The good news is we have a unique opportunity to focus our elected leaders on addressing this issue – the 2010 election. Without any incumbent running for Governor there will be more focus on what the candidates are promising and less on what they have done. 

Given the urgency around the state of higher education in Colorado and the opportunity presented by a wide open and heavily watched election, now is the time to make higher education one of the top issues in the next few years by getting the candidates to address this issue on the campaign trail. 

So we will raise the profile of higher education by blanketing all gubernatorial events and fundraisers and blanketing the media with a simple slogan – What’s Your Plan for Higher Education? We’ll generate opinion pieces in the news, bird dog all events and ask the question.