Some Republicans ready to ease cuts to UNC System
Published June 26, 2014
by Rob Christensen, News and Observer, June 24, 2014.
Perhaps the most important speech of North Carolina’s new Republican era was made nearly three years ago by GOP U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, arguably the state’s leading political voice of business.
Burr said that while North Carolina had the highest corporate and income taxes in the South – since slashed by the legislature – it was still winning most of the corporate and industrial recruiting battles with its neighbors.
The main reason, Burr said, was the state’s educational system, particularly its universities and community colleges.
“When an employer looks at an investment in North Carolina, they are not looking at the return next year,” Burr told a meeting of the National Federation of Independent Business at Raleigh’s Cardinal Club. “They are looking at the return 30 years from now. They need a future workforce that has skills and knowledge.”
Higher education in the state, particularly the University of North Carolina system, has suffered a huge erosion in financial support, starting with tight budgets during the recession, when the Democrats were in control. The UNC system’s annual budget has dropped from $2.7 billion in 2008-09 to $2.5 billion this year, while adding 9,000 students.
Connections weaker
North Carolina has one of the oldest university systems in the country. But it did not become one of the nation’s premier systems until the 1920s, when the state’s business community used its political muscle to convince the legislature to pour money into the consolidated university system. These bankers, textile magnates, lawyers, furniture executives and newspaper publishers saw it as a tool to modernize a poor, rural state.
These were men of the world and men of commerce – they were mostly men – who understood the importance of such things. As the years went by, many were products of the UNC system.
Today, the political connections between the UNC system and Raleigh have weakened. Many of the state’s current leaders are not products of the UNC system. And in this age of corporate mergers and consolidations, many business leaders are no longer Tar Heel natives.
Push-back on cuts
Among the state’s top political leadership, the most prominent UNC graduate is Art Pope, the governor’s budget director and a major GOP financier. Pope has pushed the university to cut costs, but there are indications that other Republicans have different ideas.
UNC President Tom Ross has praised the House and Senate budget as responsible, after criticizing cuts proposed by Gov. Pat McCrory.
Fred Eshelman, a Wilmington pharmaceutical executive who like Pope is a major GOP donor, told The N&O’s Jane Stancill that “it’s time to stop the bleeding.”
“You can say whatever you want to about the university system, and there’s waste and you don’t like their politics,” said Eshelman, a member of the UNC Board of Governors who gave $20 million to the UNC pharmacy school. “It doesn’t change the fact that, in my view, it’s the biggest economic engine we have in this state. And our state is known for this system.”
The Research Triangle Park, one of the state’s major industrial engines, would have been impossible without the universities. So would such successful businesses as SAS and Quintiles, which were started by local professors.
It took several generations of North Carolinians – in a sustained and impressive act of political will and discipline – to build the UNC system into what it is today. It is not something to be discarded lightly because of the latest political fads.
http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/06/24/3961567/christensen-unc-and-the-republicans.html
June 26, 2014 at 10:58 am
Norm Kelly says:
So, who is it, exactly, that's saying 'the UNC system ... is ... something to be discarded lightly'? Is there fraud, abuse, waste in the colleges & universities/system in our great state? Absolutely. Does this need to be resolved? Absolutely. Just because the school system is an engine for the future, just because the school system is something that helps generate economic value for the state does NOT mean that it can just be let go to operate in any fashion that it chooses.
There are 2 things to consider here.
First, has the fraud, waste, abuse been taken care of in the system? Is it a good education system? The answer to both of these is a resounding NO. How many leaders does it take to have a good higher-education system? While I don't know the answer as to the proper number, I do know that the number of upper-end management in the college/university system in our state is ridiculously huge and unjustifiable. There are too many leaders. And the leaders we have are significantly overpaid. The number of people who are hired by higher-education systems at outrageous salary & benefit levels is absurd. Some of the waste & abuse happens in the management system of our higher-education establishment. There are too many 'professors' who don't step into the classroom often enough to justify their salary or even being on staff. They could easily be converted to the part-time employees that they actually are. This would save the system potentially significant funds. There are courses that should not exist and if they continue to exist, the students who take these time-wasters should be paying the actual cost of the course, not the government-subsidized cost for the course. Women's studies come to mind. Black studies come to mind. What exactly does a major with degree in Women's Studies qualify a person to do as a job after graduation? Same goes for black studies. I know there are more, but this is just 2 examples that come to mind very quickly. And if my little mind can come up with 2 so quickly, I wonder why our highly educated university/college leadership can't cut what's truly wasteful. Are the leaders building their empire?
Second, the direction/political leaning of the education establishment MUST be brought in line with reality. Free speech is a Constitutional right. Not the Constitution of Canada, or Mexico, or even Iraq. The US Constitution. Until someone steps onto a college campus. Then free speech rights disappear? Why? Politically correct is just another way of justifying speech censorship. Professors that simply repeat the demoncrat talking points, make it a point to disparage conservatives at every opportunity, assigning papers with the intent of promoting socialism or berating free enterprise SHOULD not be allowed. This is NOT promoting an educated population, it's indoctrination. Something libs tell us on a regular basis is not actually happening. The problem is that there are too many sources of information available that we can prove this lie. It is happening. Just like Communist Core transformed from a 'standard' to a 'curriculum', with no room for student creativity.
The cost of higher education is out of control. It has no relation to the outcomes or the real-world. The cost of higher education has been under the control/auspices of libs for decades. What has happened to the cost of higher education? Under lib control, the cost of higher education has exceeded the cost of living for way too long. The cost of higher education is getting to the point, if it's not already there, that it is not justified. I recently received an email from a college grad shortly after the occupier used his authority as dictator to change the student loan program once again. This time he made it so no student loan holder has to pay more than 10% of their income to repay the loan. The writer of the email, who appears to have benefited from the dictator's recent change, told a sob story about his parents saving for his college education his entire life. As a freshman in high school, his mom was diagnosed with cancer. His parents used what would have been his college fund to pay for mom's treatment and hopefully to save her life. As anyone would do. The email writer graduated from high school. And went to college, using the student loan program. At the end of his higher education, he had accumulated $75,000 in student loans. He was glad the occupier had used his dictatorial authority to prevent him from going broke. He was extolling the fact that HE had gotten a college degree and had the potential now to force ME to pay for some or most of his student loans! How's that for a demonstration of socialism for our college students & grads! You get the education, someone else gets stuck with the bill. And don't even try to tell me that's not what will happen. What government program doesn't cause one group to benefit while another group pays for it?! But the point is knowing that he & his parents couldn't afford the education, he still went to a school where he accumulated a huge debt. Could he have found a college or university where he could actually afford the education? Could he have found a school where the bills would have been less difficult for HIM to pay off? Could he have extended the time it took to get his degree by taking time off to work some during the school years so he could pay off some of the debt? Not only are our kids being indoctrinated too often into the socialist belief system, but when they graduate they get a huge boost of socialist thought and practice. Is this what higher education is supposed to be about? The occupier promised to fundamentally transform the country. Promoting socialism to this extent will certainly do that!
There are alternatives to the current system. The school system, from elementary school through college, appears unwilling to make the necessary changes on their own. It appears they must be forced to take corrective action. It may not be the best way to accomplish the goal, but when you hold the purse strings, it's easy to tighten the purse clasp, make it harder for someone to reach into the purse and take out the valuables. If the system won't adapt, force it. If the only means you have at your disposal to force the change happens through dollars, the that's how you do it. If you or any other lib can come up with a better way to accomplish the change, then suggest it. But constantly throwing money at education HAS NOT helped the situation. There MUST be an alternative. Why is it that our highly educated can't come up with a plan? So far the only plan, the absolute only plan, put forth by ANY lib is to throw more money, and more money, and more money at education. That, they tell us, will fix the problem. The money we've thrown at it so far hasn't fixed it, but they tell us more will absolutely fix it. Where's the evidence? There is none. We are simply supposed to trust them. Like I trust the IRS to follow the law! Like I trust the occupier to even know what the law is! Education doesn't just happen in the classroom. People who actually pay attention to life have an even better education. And those who have not been properly indoctrinated into the love of socialism still have the ability to educate ourselves and see what is really happening. We no longer accept the lie. We have the Constitutional right to ask questions. Even if we are currently in the minority.
