Newsflash: Gov. Scott McCallum and Attorney General Jim Doyle support higher education. How they plan to help keep it afloat, however, remains to be seen.

Of course, none of the candidates in their right minds are going to say they don’t support or like UW, but start asking the hard questions about what cuts they are willing to make in UW’s budget or what increases in tuition they are willing to support and they clam up.

So far in this current gubernatorial race, neither of the candidates have given voters a concrete philosophy on how they would deal with UW’s budget. A Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel story this weekend focused solely on the candidates’ ambiguity. In fact, the only candidate so far to even have something of a plan regarding UW was democratic candidate Kathleen Falk.

Instead, candidates have just been saying what we already know: that they will increase financial aid if they increase tuition, that UW’s research means millions to the state’s economy, that every candidate loves being a Badger.

It’s what we don’t know that matters. We don’t know how much they are willing to increase tuition, we don’t know how high of cuts they are willing to force UW to swallow, we don’t know how much they are going to make out-of-state students subsidize in-state students.

The UW system is a key component to Wisconsin and its economy. Yet, the university has seen its amount of state funding drop to 30 percent in the past 30 years, has seen petty moves by the State Assembly to cut UW’s budget even more when UW froze enrollment, and has seen most of its graduates move to another state because the jobs are better there. UW needs to come up with a plan to keep the education here affordable while also making the necessary cuts all state agencies are dealing with, but they can’t do that when they don’t know what lawmakers may do next.

Voters and journalists alike cannot let the candidates slip by with their ambiguous answers about UW’s future. Enrollment at UW schools is up, yet qualified students are being forced away this year because of the budget cuts. This year 1,000 qualified students were turned away from the UW System because there wasn’t money to help educate them — that is 1,000 fewer college graduates in the work force.

Tuition is another hot topic conveniently being avoided by the two candidates. In the last budget cycle, McCallum used his line-item veto pen to increase the out-of-state tuition surcharge from 2.5 percent to 5 percent. Add to that the 8-percent tuition increase everyone faced, and out-of-state students were forced to pay a 13-percent increase this year. Keep this pace up and UW will effectively out-price out-of-state students from coming to UW, which will hurt UW’s diversity efforts as well as its pocketbook.

Push out-of-state students out and in-state students will be hurt too. Currently every out-of-state student helps subsidize the education of three in-state students; take away those out-of-state students and in-state students will have to pay more for their education — something Wisconsin parents, voters, will not want to see.

Speaking of fewer out-of-state students, voters also need to know what the candidates expect to do about the so-called brain-drain problem. Wisconsin needs to attract more businesses so there are more desirable jobs for graduates coming out of UW. Currently, more leave the state after graduation. And, Chancellor Wiley is right — UW has no control over where students get jobs after graduation, but whomever becomes governor will play a large role in bringing the desirable jobs and businesses to UW.

And, don’t forget about the Board of Regents. Democrats have refused to bring up the confirmation hearings for a few of the regents appointed by Gov. Tommy Thompson in hopes that Doyle will win this election and replace them with more “democrat-friendly” members. Whoever wins the election will have a large role in determining what the makeup of the board is. But how can anyone expect the board to know what the state may do to them next if the man who appointed them has no idea himself of what he wants the state to do.

The issues of UW affect more people than just students and their parents. The UW system is also a major employer in the state and brings millions in revenue to the state’s economy each year.

Voters should not let the candidates get away without giving us concrete answers as to how much they are willing to cut UW’s budget, how much they are willing to raise tuition to make up for those cuts, and how they plan to help keep graduates inside the state. We deserve to know what plans our leaders have in store for this state’s highest educational institution, and voters should expect nothing less.

Katie Harbath ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in journalism and political science.