Enough already with the cuts to colleges

By Christina Littlefield

Friday, April 6, 2007 | 7:17 a.m.

Jim Rogers, chancellor of the Nevada System of Higher Education, says enough is enough, and he's saying it to the governor.

The state's universities and colleges have been chronically underfunded, and their reputations long-suffering.

And even as they try to raise the academic bar, their budgets are cut because of a tortured funding formula that rewards big growth and penalizes enrollment shortfall.

It's all backward , Rogers says. You can't improve higher education by cutting its budget.

But that's what Gov. Jim Gibbons wants to do.

And so nothing less than a showdown between the chancellor and the governor is unfolding in Carson City and will play in budget hearings for education this month.

This year Nevada's political leadership will define itself as never before on higher education : Will it buttress higher education, once and for all, or will it embrace business as usual , which, in Nevada, would not bode well for the beneficiaries of higher education.

At issue for Rogers is Gibbons' war ning that state government brace for across-the-board budget cuts. He allowed for one exception. The governor said he will protect K-12 funding levels.

But left on the butcher's block is higher education, along with highways, prisons, courts and the rest of the state's operations.

Rogers says the situation is untenable.

Long ago he gave up on several new higher-education initiatives, including ones to boost research and workforce development. And now, he says, it's come down to a fight for just the most basic levels of funding.

So, with the ferocity of a hungry bear, Rogers has sent a missive to Gibbons demanding higher education receive the same protection from red pens as the K-12 budget.

Fundamental to his argument, Rogers says, is that Nevada's education system needs to be viewed - and protected - as a continuum, from kindergarten through college.

To cut higher education with the same cold calculations as the prison system is more than just a tough budget call. It signals that "higher education is not a value that is protected in the state of Nevada," Rogers wrote Gibbons.

"As our economy continues to grow and is increasingly driven by knowledge-based sectors, such Draconian cuts to one of the most important drivers of our state's economy and culture would undermine the very quality of life we strive to create and maintain for our state," Rogers wrote.

Gibbons apparently doesn't buy it.

"The governor has seen the letter and reaffirmed the fact that we all have to make sacrifices to ensure that we live within our means," press secretary Melissa Subbotin said Thursday. "He has requested across-the-board reductions from state agencies."

Although there is some flexibility, the revenue shortfall is too large to place the burden on only a few agencies, Subbotin said. The K-12 system is exempt because it affects every child in Nevada and the shortfalls there are already too great.

"We are at the bottom of every good list and the top of every bad list, therefore K-12 will not be subject to any budget reductions," Subbotin said, echoing Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus' slogan in her campaign for governor against Gibbons last fall.

Gibbons, however, still wants to cut business and banking taxes, despite a growing revenue shortfall.

Deepening the divide between Gibbons and Rogers is a dispute over what can be cut. Gibbons wants cuts of 60 percent in what he sees as the icing in the budget - programs that would improve an agency's ability to function but are not in the current operational budget.

Higher education, Rogers says, has already eliminated the icing. Further cuts will affect the most basic operations.

Rogers' higher-ed budget is constrained by a quirk in the funding formula: The state's four largest institutions won't get as much money as last year because their enrollment growth hasn't kept pace with the previous year. Without a funding adjustment, UNLV, UNR, the Community College of Southern Nevada and Truckee Meadows Community College will be funded below their current levels.

In his initial proposal, Gibbons compensated the campuses for those enrollment-driven budget cuts. But he's now threatening to take that away.

Growth is slowing at UNLV and UNR because of higher admissions standards intended to improve academic quality. Community college growth has cooled because of crowded facilities.

UNLV and UNR predict they would have to cut as many as 225 faculty and administrative positions and as many as 700 class sections, making it more difficult for students to take classes they need to graduate. Student support services also would be cut.

The already underfunded CCSN would have to make cuts across the college, particularly affecting its partnerships with the Clark County School District and its initiatives to improve workforce training.

Further higher-ed budget cuts will propel a downward spiral, Rogers says.

He said he felt good after sending his letter to Gibbons. "I would not be doing the system justice if we had given in at this point," he said. "We have a legitimate story to tell, and I am going to tell it."

He said he hoped legislators would take his plea to heart.

"Most legislators don't think we grandstand. They don't think that we ask for $10 when really we only need five. We gave a lot of time and thought to this budget."