The Badger Herald: Opinion: Doyle passes the buck

Opinion

Doyle passes the buck

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By Badger Herald Editorial Board
Thursday, February 20, 2003 12:00 a.m.

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Gov. Jim Doyle brought the proverbial hammer down on the UW System in a big way with his Tuesday budget proposal to a joint session of the state Legislature. This in and of itself was not unexpected. Under the looming shadow of a $3.7 billion budget gap, UW was braced for the hit.

The trouble came when Doyle hit the wrong side of the nail.

The governor?s proposal forces the UW System to face the single largest cut of any state agency. The proposed $250 million budget cut would be broken into two parts: $110 million for the ?03-?04 academic year and $140 million for the ?04-?05 academic year.

Additionally, under the Doyle plan, 650 jobs will be cut from System payrolls over the next two years.

These figures prove more severe than even Bascom anticipated.

More troubling a problem than simply trimming the fat is the prospect that it could still be largely avoided.

Under the Doyle plan, tuition increases will be capped at $350 million dollars for the next biennium at doctoral institutions (Madison and Milwaukee) and $250 dollars at all other UW institutions. Doyle?s tuition proposal would cover only 60 percent of UW?s total cut, leaving a $100 million gap to be filled by slashes to the System budget.

Such a limited in-state tuition increase (just under 10 percent) stands at odds with UW administrators? (and this newspaper?s) repeated requests to offset any budget deficit by bringing tuition levels, which are currently far below the national median for comparable universities, on par with their peers. Out-of-state tuition must also be held in check throughout the budget process. Should Doyle refuse to relent and lay the additional burden solely on cuts to UW?s base operations budget without bringing in additional in-state revenue to bridge the gap, the end result is clear: The quality of a UW education will suffer.

Academic programs will certainly be lost at UW-Madison due to the budget constraints. Which particular programs will suffer is at the moment unclear. Chancellor Wiley assures no capital projects will be put on hold due to the cuts and that any specific academic areas that will suffer losses are as yet undetermined.

In an olive branch corollary to the student constituency, the governor also proposed increasing financial aid to the state?s neediest students by $23.6 million to offset some of the burdens of increased tuition costs. Such a move is both a social necessity if UW schools are to maintain their prized hallmark of accessibility through this budget crisis and a political necessity to defray flak from a decidedly unpopular tuition increase.

If, as Doyle himself insisted in his address, quality education is the key to future economic security, why place the state?s most important means to that end at the top of the hit list in exchange for temporary political capital?

Parents of current and prospective UW students vote and vote frequently. College tuition, already a burden on many Wisconsin families, is an immediate fiscal burden in an economically strained state. Tuition increases are a hard public sell; maintaining the long-term quality of a UW education through what might termed drastic tuition increases is a harder sell — one that requires the sort of leadership Doyle failed to display Tuesday night.