Governor accuses legislators of creating fear about college cuts so they create confusion instead
After a press conference Thursday in which Gov. Sonny Perdue accused the legislative branch of fear-mongering, scare tactics and attempting to dismantle Georgia’s world-class university system, key lawmakers held their own press conference across the street where they opted to create confusion rather than fear. I attended both press events and the contrast in message was stark.
To update you: The state’s 35 colleges and universities were told that on top of the $265 million cuts that the governor proposed in his budget, they would have to cut $300 million more from their 2010 budgets. That figure came out of a joint House-Senate budget committee led by state Rep. Earl Ehrhart and Sen. Seth Harp, who held today’s press conference.
The news has sent tremors through the higher ed community — as evidenced in the comments to this blog — and upset parents and students. In trying to come up with $300 million in cuts this week, colleges proposed decreasing their freshmen classes and transfer admissions, as well as cutting programs and class offerings.
At the end of the legislators’ news conference, reporters looked at each other and wondered what was the point since nothing seemed to have changed about the $300 million target. (One media wag suggested the whole point of the press conference was to tell the public: “Stop e-mailing us.”)
While Ehrhart said at least three times that he did not expect colleges to have to accept the full $300 million in cuts, he admitted that it was still possible, pending new revenue figures, in response to the final question of the day from my colleague Aaron Gould Sheinin. Yet, minutes earlier, Ehrhart had said, “I don’t think you are going to see $300 million or drastic cuts.)
I caught up with Harp outside the press conference and asked him about the lack of clarity on that pivotal issue. Would colleges have to accept a $300 million hit? “We just don’t know,” he told me. But he also said that he didn’t want to see fewer kids going to college because slots were eliminated. “That is the last thing we want to do.”
The governor made clear that he would not accept the $300 million in additional cuts to higher ed, cuts that he said were unreasonable, Draconian and likely to undo the state’s efforts to create a world-class higher education system. Yes, tuition could increase a bit, he said, since Georgia’s tuition remains among the lowest in the country. “We don’t want to be leading the pack, but we don’t want to be bringing up the rear, either,” Perdue said.
I asked the governor about decreases to admissions, especially at the top schools, and Perdue said he did not want to see that happen. While classes can grow bigger, he would not accept colleges cutting back on the numbers of students they admitted. Not on his watch.
Ehrhart and Harp said they could not embrace any tax increases, including the hospital bed tax in the Perdue budget. “I don’t think we are going to substitute a sick tax on the people of Georgia for higher ed cuts or vice versa,” said Ehrhart.
So where can the money come from out of higher ed if not through higher tuition or decreases in enrollments?
Harp repeated his contention that the chancellor and Regents have not looked hard enough at cutting the salaries of their top people. He disputed Chancellor Erroll Davis’ contention that such cuts would cause the best people to leave the system. He noted that a member of the Legislature was a Delta pilot now earning 35 percent less, but that the airline was healthy again.
Leaders should not be passing the sacrifices onto students and programs, he said, without first making their own sacrifices. “It has to be shared sacrifice,” said Harp. “I don’t want it all on the backs of students.”
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Guides
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2012 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
145 comments Add your comment
sees the future
March 4th, 2010
4:07 pm
I have one in college and two more coming up. I would happily pay quite a bit more in tuition rather than see these cuts take place. I’ve lived all over the US and Georgia’s tuition is incredibly low. We can pay more. No one really wants to, but we can.
mift
March 4th, 2010
4:24 pm
I understand the outcry for higher ed but i wonder where the outcry is for k-12. K-12 has seen this dramatic decline in funding for many years now and we are in crisis mode. Folks who care for k-12 need to look at the higher ed example and rally the troops.
Roach
March 4th, 2010
4:42 pm
Sure, the General Assembly could cap USG administrator salaries (at least, the state-funded part), but that’s not going to generate even a sizeable fraction of $300 million. Then again, Georgia has some of the nation’s highest paid college presidents. What do we really have to show for it?
Sally T.
March 4th, 2010
4:42 pm
The tired old Tea Party (Redneck Party) mantra of “no more taxes” is coming home to destroy us. People follow this blindly, without remembering that Reagan raised taxes 6 of his 8 years in office. Time to go home, the Tea Party’s over.
lss
March 4th, 2010
4:53 pm
Food for thought — Colleges need to look at cutting mid level management such as vice presidents, administrators who have titles but do not teach and anyone earning over $100,000 per year instead of cutting staff members who make 15,000 – 30,000 yearly. Some professors are working for $45,000 and teach 70 or more students per class while others make $100,000 plus and teach a class size of 25 -30..
Dekalb Guy
March 4th, 2010
4:58 pm
Maureen, did you ask Rep. Ehrhart and Senator Harp why universities are being asked to account for almost 30% ($300 million) of the proposed $1.1 billion cuts, even though the university system only makes up 12% of the state budget? This seems like something important to find out.
ThrashFanMax
March 4th, 2010
4:59 pm
Who the hell says we can pay more? You pay more if you want, but until you pay my student loans do not volunteer me to pay more. Cut the freaking pay of some of these bureaucrats. We do not need more new taxes we need smarter taxes. Those of us working on graduate degrees and trying to support our families should not shoulder the burden of government mismanagement and plundering of our education system. We already have them looting the public schools systems to pay for their out of control spending. Oh and do not blame Repubs only Dems are doing their fare share of poor spending.I am sick of seeing tuition go up, cost of books go up, and the people at the top are the only ones who get any more. Oh and what about this Georgia Works program at the DOL, you only qualify if you draw unemployment….what about those of us not burdening the government with paying us who need help getting a foot in the door. All of them can put it where the sun does not shine, and those of you who can afford to pay more in tuition and fees….make a donation to the school and leave the rest of us out of your stupid ideas. Stop to think about how much damage it will do to some of the poorest and hardest working people in the country. STUDENTS DESERVE BETTER THAN THIS.
Brazen Unicorn
March 4th, 2010
5:00 pm
I agree Iss. Some of the VPs, deans, and others collect these big pay checks, still retain “faculty” status and get paid close to or well over $100,000 a year. If you look at these positions and what their responsibilities are, many of them overlap. In some cases, there is a serious waste of money and resources.
a mad high school teacher
March 4th, 2010
5:01 pm
It is ridiculous that our governor, lt. governor, and legislators just keep talking out of both sides of their mouths when it comes to education. I keep hearing that they all want a world class education system in Georgia, but when it it comes to funding it, all I hear is we have to cut, cut, cut, because of the bad economy. Well, Governor, this educator is extremely disgusted at being used as a pawn in the game you lawmakers are playing at the Capitol. You have been cutting education funds all eight years you have been there, regardless of the economy. I know I will not be voting for any incumbent who is in office now, nor will I be voting for that snake charmer, “Roy Barnes” either! It is time to cut out the pork barrell spending for your precious “Horse Arena” in your home county and those other projects that will matter to only a very few. Spend that $9 million dollars on education!
Dawg-n-Buzz
March 4th, 2010
5:09 pm
Wow – the game that the legislature is playing. I say this very reluctantly but as a parent of 2 students a USG schools (UGA and Tech) we can and need to pay a bit more -our kids stayed in state because of the very low cost relative to other schools. The value of their education at these world class universities is worth the extra $10k over 4 years – we CAN’T afford destroying these universities
So cut Public K-12 MORE!!
March 4th, 2010
5:11 pm
Our state is led by Republicans who want to cut all forms of government inteference. They have already cut the school year required from 180 to at least 170 days and may allow systems to cut another 20 or so days…but argue they can’t eliminate the number of students going to college??? Ridiculous! By cutting the school calendar they are ensuring that the Georgians graduating from high school will be even more behind than they currently seem to be based on national comparisons. Thus, fewer will be eligible for college anyway so why not go ahead and cut the funding to universities that will never see the students anyway? What national tests are conducted to see if the professors are actually doing their jobs? What end of course tests are used to compare basic college core classes to ensure professors are teaching the standards for the courses they teach? I know some professors do not even have attendance policies and certainly give easier exams than others which actually gets around the U and thus garners more students to enroll in the “easy class”. Easy classes still count the same as every college student can attest!
how many $100,000 in $300,000,000?
March 4th, 2010
5:16 pm
I’m not a fan of VP’s and assistant VPs, etc., but do we have 3000 of those guys out there that we can eliminate?
What’s wrong with these guys who just keep telling “no tax increases”? Didn’t someone say we should never say “never”?
Allison
March 4th, 2010
5:20 pm
As a college senior at University System of Georgia university, I’ve seen many cuts over the years including the cut to my school’s budget in 2009 by a substantial amount. The students here have experienced a raise in arbitrarily named fees annually which we realize are necessary for the sustainability of our research and other function areas of our university, frustrating nonetheless. Georgia is unique in that it’s in state-tuition is one of the lowest in the country, so its not too incredible that a proposed 77% increase in tuition is causing an outcry within the student population. Cutting university presidents’ paychecks would not even put a dent into the deficit; they have priceless intellectual property and leadership that we need in our school system. Georgia isn’t the first state forced to budget cut in higher education, and it’s disheartening that no one has found a solution within the respective states. There will always have to be trade offs when the economy is suffering, but the price of cutting our higher education budgets is not worth the consequences; making appropriate cuts to state government employees should be the first step before passing the burden onto the 20 somethings of our state.
Another DeKalb guy
March 4th, 2010
5:23 pm
DeKalb Guy.
“Maureen, did you ask Rep. Ehrhart and Senator Harp why universities are being asked to account for almost 30% ($300 million) of the proposed $1.1 billion cuts, even though the university system only makes up 12% of the state budget? This seems like something important to find out.”
DeKalb Guy, that is not $300 million. It is $265 million plus $300 million or $565 million. The $300 million was in addition to USG’s share as computed by Sonny Perdue. That looks more like 50%.
Melinda
March 4th, 2010
5:28 pm
As an undergraduate student at Georgia State University myself, I feel the need to emphasis that not all of us can afford higher tuition. I am a single mother who works part time and goes to school full time in hopes of getting my degree so I can become a teacher. I have enjoyed receiving the HOPE scholarship for quite some time now.. but unfortunatly I am now approaching 127 hours (the limit for the HOPE scholarship).. so I will have to pay tuition and book fees COMPLETELY out of pocket. I already have $35,000 in student loans.. and I still have a year and a half left to go. So NO WE CAN’T AFFORD TO RAISE TUITION. If some of you parents think you can afford to pay more.. THEN DO IT. Make a donation to your child’s school… however don’t think you can speak for the rest of us struggling to get by.
Paul
March 4th, 2010
5:34 pm
I think most of you are forgetting, the average college student has to pay for his own college. On top of that when we get out of college we are stuck with student loans and an over saturated work market. The same people that will not leave the workplace because they are in to much debt are the ones proposing that college students should pay 77% more for tuition. Leaving the young adults with upper level degrees unemployed because Jon Smith at the age of 66 with 30 years of experience does not want to leave the workforce. If the students whose parents want to voluntarily take part paying my amazingly low tuition, I welcome it. Otherwise deal with your children and leave the ones fighting tooth and nail alone.
Bill
March 4th, 2010
5:34 pm
There is certainly room for universities to save money by restructuring into flatter organizations. However this has to be done strategically. You cannot do it with a wave of your hand, and you cannot do it in a single budget year without severely damaging the institution. And yes, tuition and fees will need to go up. But if we raise them much (on top of the above inflation increases over the last 20 years), we will limit access, which is fundamental to the mission of the system.
And incidentally, the USG is not be asked to absorb $300 m in cuts. They are being asked to absorb that on top of the roughly $260 – 270m that the governor recommended. That is a total of nearly $600m in cuts in one year. That means that the system, which accounts for 12% of the state budget is being asked to make up nearly 55% of the shortfall.
a mad high school teacher
March 4th, 2010
5:35 pm
Times have changed! Most jobs now being created in the state and country are knowledge based. Most manufacturing jobs in Georgia have basically been sent overseas in order to keep the cost of manufacturing those goods down. The factories in my part of Georgia that once produced suits, blazers, sports coats, and slacks are now being made by workers who make 25 to 50 cents an hour in Southeast Asia. For that reason, we cannot afford to cut the funds that are going to education, especially our colleges and universities. We cannot continue the dumbing down of our young people. If anything, we need to be extending the number of days in the school years, not cutting back! We keep getting passed by other countries who have made the changes that are necessary to compete in this ever changing world economy. Governor Perdue! “Do what is necessary to keep our state universities and colleges WORLD CLASS!”
Say Huh, Say What??
March 4th, 2010
5:42 pm
“…Georgia has some of the nation’s highest paid college presidents. What do we really have to show for it?”
A 14% graduation rate, check out the latest stats for the USG. Only 14% of their students are graduating in 4 yrs. The state schools do even worse (8%)
Sonny Per-due...gone fishin
March 4th, 2010
5:45 pm
I’ve got pork to fund. To hell with your educational goals.
just wondering
March 4th, 2010
5:51 pm
Melinda,
May I ask how did you rake up $35,000 in student loans if you had HOPE for quite some time now? Surely the books are not THAT expensive.
Generally speaking tuition at state schools in Georgia is quite cheap which puts pressure on schools to accommodate all the interested students (too many people want to attend college, since the price is too low), and generally leads to de-valuation of college degrees (too many people obtain them, hence having a college degree matters less and less when applying for a job).
So yes, go ahead and raise tuition.
Bill
March 4th, 2010
5:56 pm
Say huh, say what??
I am confused. The USG IS the state schools. Is this different from public universities across the country? Why does it take more than 4 years for so many students to graduate? First because they are not ready for college level work when they get there. This is a national problem. Secondly, a change in majors, which is often a good thing in the long run will often put students behind. Many students do not graduate from the school where they start. This negatively effects graduation rates. The six year graduation rate is a measure that is a clearer indicator of how many students actually graduate. System wide, the 6 year graduation rate is about 59%.
joanne
March 4th, 2010
5:57 pm
Take away a few top salaries at Tech and UGA and most adminstrators are paid at a lower rate then their counterparts across the country. Millions for coachs salaries is ok but everyone else get cuts which does not do Georgia and its citizens any good as we build for the future and try to attract 21st century jobs to our state
Jim
March 4th, 2010
5:58 pm
UGA and Ga Tech tuition and fees are $7500 per year + housing + board + other expenses. The total costs for in-state student is around $20,000 per year. So if the student does not work, it is possible to accumulate $35,000 for three years.
Also, keep in mind, both Ga Tech and UGA just increased its tuition by 25% just last year by switching full status from 12 credits to 15 credits.
Winfield J. Abbe
March 4th, 2010
5:58 pm
At UGA the Athletic Assn. is a multi million dollar commercial enterprise on public property with virtual slave labor. If you could own a business which paid no rent and had slave labor and paid no taxes, wouldn’t you make multi millions of dollars too? This commercial enterprise must be taxed by the State of Georgia about 50% or more. The football coach makes over a million dollars a year also on state owned property. He must be sir taxed. The Athletic Director just got a raise of almost $100K raising his income to over a half million dollars a year when people are out of work and struggling; some are homeless and starving This is sick stuff folks. The legislators must obtain a print out of all these outrageous salaries for these folks and get the red pencils out. Adams makes over half a million dollars in salary plus many other perks likely bringing his underserved income to about a million dollars a year. In this market you could fire him and hire someone twice as good for about one fourth of the money.
Would you pay $ 1 million for someone if you could hire a much better younger person for $200K or less? Are we crazy?
The Board of Regents is totally stacked, mostly by Mr. Perdue who graduated from there.
Eleven of the 18 members are UGA graduates or cronies of them. They have approved a misguided new medical school, that is not receiving any mention in these talks, that is totally unnecessary and wasteful and foolish and could cost upwards of a billion dollars before all this is over. We already have three medical schools in Georgia, MCG at Augusta, Mercer at Macon and Emory at Atlanta. There are hundreds of them in other states. We do not need any more period. This is a total waste of money for the selfish benefit of the cronies in Athens who have been at the public trough now for decades because they have totally failed to demonstrate any leadership in bringing in new industry to Athens because most of the people who make the decisions are Robin Hood Communists who work at UGA. What business in their right mind would come there?
The legislators must get the full financial information before making any final decisions on all this. They must reduce salaries and/ or fire people and immediately end this nonsense of lifetime jobs or tenure for professors. There is absolutely no reason in this day and time for any of these professors to be guaranteed lifetime employment. None of them in Georgia are that good. None of them have earned a Nobel Prize. The only Nobel Prize Winners in Georgia are Jimmy Carter and Dr. Martin Luther King for peace.
Wake up folks. There is much money available if you cut some of these outrageous salaries of these good for nothing administrators and professors too.
How would you like to have a guaranteed job making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year at the state trough while others are struggling and many have even lost their homes!
This is an obscenity. The legislators are absolutely correct to be indignant at all this. I fully support deep cuts in this bloated, wasteful, decadent, obscene spending in the higher education system of Georgia. Finally many students here are not from Georgia, but foreign countries working as virtual slaves to these professors. It is not the responsibility of Georgia taxpayers to provide higher education for foreign students period. Also, cut that $ 7.7 million for the design of a learning center for the Vet. School. We already have a brand new learning center called the Miller Learning Center at UGA and we need another one like we need a hole in our head.
Winfield J. Abbe, Ph. D., Physics
Athens, GA
Attentive Parent
March 4th, 2010
5:59 pm
Say Huh-
You are making an interesting point but I’m confused.
USG is all 35 public colleges and Universities.
What are the other “state schools”?
Donna Howell
March 4th, 2010
6:00 pm
As long as the horse barn, the little league park, and the halls of fame are still in the budget…
As long as the General Assembly members are still taking their per diem payments…
As long as they refuse to consider raising taxes on tobacco and alcoholic beverages…
I see no reason to believe that they think the situation is as dire as they say it is while they cut education.
Robert
March 4th, 2010
6:02 pm
Our universities have some of the lowest tutions in the country so we can increase tutiton to the national average. Also if enrollement is at record numbers you increase the number of employees to deal with the high volumne not cut employees. Rather then cap enrollement change Hope to be based on SAT scores rather local schools grades and by using a standard validated method of scoring I bet the number of students qualified for Hope will decrease resulting in lower enrollements but better qualified students at college in Georgia
UGA Parent
March 4th, 2010
6:03 pm
Here is the answer to this problem :
First , read history. You will find that George C. Wallace funded his state’s junior college system back in the 1960’s witha modest tax on every container of alcoholic beverage sold in the state. Intended to fund 5 colleges ,it eventually made it possible to provide community colleges at 26 campuses (and technical schools) in Alabama.
Now. I propose a 5 cent per container tax on every alcoholic beverage sold in Georgia ,with money dedicated to the state’s college and university system. This would (in combination with spending prioritization at the institutions) fund a first class university system for Georgia.
The following safeguards should be enacted to protect both the schools and the taxpayers:
1) The tax should have an ironclad sunset provision that ensures that it will not become permanent. in the preamble to the bill, there should be a clear statement of intent that this measure is a temporary in nature,to help fund colleges and universities during hard economic times.
2) No “raiding” the trust funds. Lawmakers should not be allowed to divert these funds raised for pet projects. There should be safeguards to prevent this pot of money from being hijacked by politicians.
3) No loopholes. EVERY container of alcoholic beverage should be subject to the tax. Wine ,beer and hard liquor should be taxed evenly ,without special industry favors.
4) Schools must share in the sacrifice. Freeze hiring at current levels. No raises while the tax is being collected. No $2 million dollar Bell Towers (Dalton State ,I’m looking at you) while austerity is the word. No college presidential junkets ,receptions or vanity projects. Sacrifice must be shared.
5) Students should be asked to contribute more in tuition and be allowed to volunteer services to pay part of the increased tuition.
There. I have just given everyone a workable plan to get past the current difficulty. The question is: Do our cynical ,lying politicians have the courage to do the above ?
Michael
March 4th, 2010
6:04 pm
USG graduation rates are 49% for 2007-2008, according to the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement. This is for 6-years, which is standard. Many students in the USG work or have other obligations (like family) that force them to take fewer hours per semester.
http://www.gaosa.org/University.aspx?PageReq=108&FromSection=report&SchoolId=ALL&SY=2008&Tab=SB&ScoreBoardId=8
Bill
March 4th, 2010
6:04 pm
Say huh, say what??
I was checking out “state schools”. They system lists “research universities”, “regional universities”, “state universities” and “state colleges”. I guess you were referring to the last two, but they are all part of the system.
They system wide 4 year graduation rate is 26% system wide. For the three research universities it is about 41%.
Angela
March 4th, 2010
6:09 pm
I am an undergraduate currently attending a USG school. I will be attending grad school at USG school. I pay for my school out of pocket. Its difficult, but if raising tuition will elevate the standards of these universities, then I am all for it. If raising tuition will keep the best professors intact, then I am all for it. What is more important? A piece of paper that says you graduated from a low class Georgia university; or actually graduating from a world class institution with knowledge and skills to get you through the capitalistic society?
Alternative ways of saving money
March 4th, 2010
6:10 pm
If this cut happens, over 4000 people in the USG system will be laid off / terminated. Most of these people are at the lower end of the salary scale because they are the newer untenured faculty or the newer staff. Meanwhile the highly paid people remain — some of them close to retirement, some administrators, and some tenured faculty who have been around a long time. Why hasn’t some alternative ways of saving money been thought through? Why not give early retirement incentives to these people? Having just 20 of those $100,000 people retire would generate $2,000,0000 in ongoing annual savings! And you could have some $3,000 per course part-time instructor teach their classes! Other states do this when things get tough, and it causes a lot less chaos and damage to the system overall. It might even get rid of some excess administrators.
USG Faculty Member
March 4th, 2010
6:13 pm
I’ve been a USG faculty member for 26 years in three different USG universities. It is impossible to spit out a window without hitting a vice president, associate vice president, or assistant vice president on my campus. All of these people make much more than the average faculty member. This is bad enough, but what the general public may not know is the scandalous extent to which most of the colleges/universities use part-timers and even inexperienced graduate students to teach core courses. These are the courses deemed essential for success in college and beyond. The USG university where I am a full professor uses students pursuing an MFA in creative writing to teach almost all of the freshmen composition courses. It’s a shocking travesty, and a textbook example of “bait and switch” advertising.
Bill
March 4th, 2010
6:14 pm
UGA parent,
I like parts of your proposal. If we want to maintain anything like a world class system (and honestly, we have a ways to go to catch up with NC regionally), we have to pay for it. The economic benefit will make it worthwhile. But, why should it be temporary??
The two million dollar bell tower, and the country club style accommodations at many schools are in my opinion, a problem. But that is a separate issue. We are talking about operating budgets. Capital budgets and operating budgets cannot be mixed.
JacketFan
March 4th, 2010
6:23 pm
Um, there are four medical schools. You’re forgetting Morehouse.
Attentive Parent
March 4th, 2010
6:31 pm
Are the capital improvements and operating budgets really separate issues in a time of cutbacks?
If one has been runaway historically, wouldn’t there be some fat in the operating budget?
Isn’t part of the problem that those with the influence to push for the absurd also have the power to protect the absurd expenditure?
Dekalb Guy
March 4th, 2010
6:33 pm
@ “Another Dekalb Guy”
“DeKalb Guy.
“Maureen, did you ask Rep. Ehrhart and Senator Harp why universities are being asked to account for almost 30% ($300 million) of the proposed $1.1 billion cuts, even though the university system only makes up 12% of the state budget? This seems like something important to find out.”
DeKalb Guy, that is not $300 million. It is $265 million plus $300 million or $565 million. The $300 million was in addition to USG’s share as computed by Sonny Perdue. That looks more like 50%.”
that $265 million is being carried over from FY 2010. I assume that ALL state agencies are being asked to carry over cuts. In any case, whether it’s 30% or 50%, the university system is being asked to SACRIFICE MUCH MORE than its fair share. Why is the legislature doing this???
William
March 4th, 2010
6:40 pm
I support not only the cuts but also a small tuition hike. I attended the University of West Georgia until recently and also was paid by the school for contract work. The wasteful spending at the university is common knowledge among students – why we needed a new rock climbing wall and a football stadium when even the students forget we have sports teams is beyond me. There are several majors that are as irrelevant as a major in basket weaving, and the tenured professors are overpaid and under worked. The cuts proposed by the school appear to be logical and long overdue – UWG will probably be a much better school once the wasteful spending and irrelevant programs are eliminated.
Bill
March 4th, 2010
6:41 pm
Alternative -
Adjunct instructors already outnumber full time faculty.
Some posters here have suggested that too many students go to college, and we should just raise tuition so fewer go. That does not ensure that the most capable students go, just the ones with money.
Someone else suggested using SAT scores for HOPE instead of grades. This will have the same result. Minorities and economically disadvantaged students score lower on the SAT. BUT, High School grades are a better predictor of college performance than the SAT is.
State university systems were created so that anyone who is capable and who wants to can get an education. Limiting cost is critical to this.
unclefast
March 4th, 2010
6:42 pm
When you live by the tax cut, you die by the tax cut.
less teaching
March 4th, 2010
6:42 pm
Interesting, among the biggest cuts will be to the full & part/time instructors who aren’t tenured. These are the folks that are usually hired for “pure teaching”, and paid the least. Functionally they’re the most cost-effective component to undergraduate education right now. And yet the proposed budget cuts will fire HALF of them?? That’s on average over 10% of university teaching effort lost, right off the bat.
Bill
March 4th, 2010
6:48 pm
William,
Wasteful spending? Yes, it is there. But the state is talking about cutting operating budgets. That is separate from the rock climbing walls and football stadiums, which I agree are a problem.
As for professors being overpaid and underworked, Not true for most of them. If you think their only job is in the classroom, I can see how you think this, but that accounts for probably 20-30% of what they are asked to do.
Irrelevant majors – could be. Or it could be that you don’t see or understand the relevance.
I am sure we can find savings in flatter organizations, elimination of some duplication, cutting irrelevant majors, etc. The starting place for that discussion is $120 m, not $650 m.
Bill
March 4th, 2010
6:49 pm
Less teaching –
Actually, UGA proposed cutting ALL adjuncts
shirley
March 4th, 2010
6:52 pm
State investment in k to 12 and higher education are essential to the health of Georgia’s economy. Both sides of the aisles should get on board with doing whatever it takes to get the economy back on track whether it is good for the individual members politically or not. Like a lot of Georgians I prefer to vote for smart, courageous leaders not those who duck and hide from the challenges we face at any given time.
A dose of reality from Wardell
March 4th, 2010
6:57 pm
First, I want to thank myself for actually reading through all of this mess. A bunch of winers!
The state is required to provide PRIMARY education to residents (K – 12). A secondary education is not a right! Get over the cost. If you can’t afford it, especially with all the money that goes unclaimed for university education then….tough! Hear this…A COLLEGE EDUCATION IS NOT A RIGHT. It’s like a driver’s license…it’s a privledge.
I will agree that if there are that many people in administrative position then the colleges need to organizationally get flatter, but why shouldn’t people pay more? If the tuition in the state is the lowest in the county, shouldn’t it be adjusted? So you want the ability to make more money without paying more money? When does that really happen? I can invest minimal cost with monumental gains? Stop it!
Dawg-n-buzz is on point. If they have to pay more for a better education then that is what they will do then they deserve what they get. Stop looking for handouts!
I’ve read that the problem is that older people are not leaving the workforce…that is life! Whine….whine….whine? So a 66 year old should stop earning an income to pay for his family so a 20-something can have money to party in VIP? STOP IT!
To Mr. Abbe, you are part of the problem. Complaining about sports, like they are the problem. Name one lecture that you have given that had 60,000 people attend? Let me answer that for you…none! If you work in the REAL WORLD and not in academia you would realize that if you bring in the type of dollars that subsidize your salary then you generally make the most money. You are an expense my friend, the athletic director and coach generate MILLIONS of dollars. How much money have YOU generated for your university to validate you salary. Stop hating!
Also, what does a NOBEL peace prize have to do with teaching? Some of my most influential teachers never even came close to receiving that award. That is what is called a fallacy.
To UGA PARENT, I like the idea but my problem is why tax the poor to pay for the rich? I mean, most package stores are in poor communities that do not get the same primary education funding that affluent communities receive! Most students that are granted access to secondary education are from better off communities, so to subsidize your cost we need to tax the poor more? I’m sure you are against welfare in normal circumstances!
Look, bottom line…I don’t care about post-secondary funding…I care about (K-12) funding. When the graduation rate is below 80% and our Superintendent of schools send out a press release applauding that Georgia has reached the highest grad rate ever. We have a bigger problem.
According to the Institute for Educational Excellence in Metro Atlanta for the class of 2008 (just that year…imagine all of the years combined), we had 28,000 students considered drop-outs! Isn’t that a bigger issue than this??? So you know that’s $323M in annual lost income compared to them graduating from high school! $38M in lost taxes!
Get your mind right and fight the good fight!
Raise Tuiton Now
March 4th, 2010
7:01 pm
Maureen–with four children of school age, I find it hard to believe you can be objective here.
You went to Columbia University for crying out loud–you know what a bargain we have here in GA.
RTN
catlady
March 4th, 2010
7:02 pm
Pot, meet kettle.
Bill Brasky
March 4th, 2010
7:02 pm
UGA ABSOLUTELY needs to decrease enrollment and become more selective in its admissions process. The folks that run the show in Athens have been striving for years to make UGA into the next UNC or UVA. Guess what, Chapel Hill and Virginia don’t have enrollments over 34,000.
I know Sonny won’t stand for it, but UGA needs to do it. Only around 60% of last year’s incoming freshman had high school GPAs of 3.75 or higher. At UNC 95% of their class had GPAs of 3.75 and above. UGA has lax admissions standards that are holding it back from being the academic institution it strives to become.
Does it mean that Georgia will slip from the top 10 party school rankings? Possibly.
Will it mean the end to “majors” like fashion merchandising? Probably.
Will the Greek population take a hit when the ditzes and dimwits find it harder to get into Georgia in the first place? Yes.
Does it solve every problem at UGA? No.
Does it put Georgia on the path to becoming a nationally recognized public university instead of a regional “bargain”? Yes.
Going to the University of Georgia is not a right, its a privilege. The University has come a long way academically, but still has a long way to go. In order to be the best University possible, you’ve got to start accepting only the best. Don’t worry, there’s plenty of space for Sally Sorostitute to park her daddy’s Land Rover at Georgia State.
Professor
March 4th, 2010
7:06 pm
I’ve been a college professor for 21 years (8 in GA) and I’ve experienced many of the changes that have added unnecessary expenditures to our schools. As solutions go, cutting enrollment at some of our schools is not a bad idea (not talking about UGA or Tech). There are far too many students who have no business being in college who are taking up resources that otherwise wouldn’t be needed.
I have 18 students in one of my courses right now, and I wouldn’t recognize 8 of them because they never come to class. They will all fail the course, but they don’t seem to mind. This happens routinely. I finally asked my other students why their peers do this. They said it’s all a financial aid scam whereby these students must enroll in so many hours to get their financial aid checks, but they really don’t have much interest in being students. It’ll catch up to them in a year or two, but they only wanted to be in school for the “social” activities anyway, so they enjoy it while they can. In freshman and sophomore level courses, I see this every semester (thankfully I only teach one section).
Another cash sucking program is located in the College of Graduate Studies. Most graduate programs are not needed because grad students today are, in many cases, just 5th year seniors who didn’t want to or couldn’t find a job (again, UGA & Tech are exceptions). I’ve dumbed down my graduate courses so far, that I’m embarrassed when I get really capable students. I have to do it, though, because giving bad grades to 50% of the class doesn’t go over well with administrators.
Doh, I’m starting to sound like a grumpy old professor (still not 50 yet, so maybe I should just shut up and keep my head down). Still, if you’re the parent of a college student, it isn’t the same today, and waste is everywhere.!