Opinion
 

Staff Editorial

                            Matt Dulin    Barrett Goldsmith    Zach Lee 
                Jim Parsons            Christian Schmidt           Blake Whitaker

Cut off

When Texas was faced with dwindling state revenues, it significantly cut higher education spending while relinquishing tuition-setting powers to each public university.

Though that course of action has its flaws and potential hazards, it doesn't come close to what a Colorado lawmaker is proposing to fix the same problem in his state.

According to the Rocky Mountain Collegian, the student newspaper of Colorado State University, Republican state Sen. Ron Tech wants to completely cut off state funding for higher education and other state-funded programs, including health care, effectively privatizing every state university.

The very thought seems preposterous, but in a staff editorial, the Collegian said although the proposal may seem "drastic" or a "just plain bad idea," it is realistic.

In Colorado, the state operates under a Taxpayers' Bill of Rights, which stipulates that the state cannot increase expenditures except to match inflation or population growth. 

TABOR has also limited the government's ability to raise taxes or create new revenue streams. Now that economic times are rough, Colorado can only cut spending to match its dwindling income.

Rather than compromising TABOR, Teck proposes compromising what is arguably the state's most lucrative investment: higher education.

Privatizing education would only open up new problems for students. Though competition may improve the quality of some schools, rising costs -- up to three or four times the current tuition rates -- would stymie first-generation college students looking for a leg up.

It's possible that Teck is simply trying to draw attention to the situation, in which case we hope it remains such. Privatized state higher education would undermine the qualities that make public schools attractive.

A privatized UH would be forced to make unprecedented tuition and fee hikes, forcing out the very students it has always meant to serve.


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