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COLUMN: Voice of people needed to fix higher education in Michigan

By Nathan Inks on October 12, 2011 8:00 am in Columns / 4 comments

 

A major theme of Monday night’s Griffin Policy Forum was how the amount of funding a government and society set aside for education gives insight into how much they value education.

Over the past 30 years, the ratio of state funding for universities to tuition has flipped from 75-25 percent to 25-75 percent, meaning that the cost of higher education for students has gone up significantly.

Why is it that higher education has seen such a hit in funding? University President George Ross argued it is because we “haven’t put higher education at a strategic level,” and that “the state needs to step up and make higher education a priority.”

How do we as Michiganders accomplish this?

State Representative Bob Genetski, R-Saugatuck, has introduced House Bill 5000 which would create a “state university system restructuring commission” tasked with analyzing the operating structure of Michigan’s universities and determining if the constitutional requirement that each state university has a separate, autonomous governing board is the best thing for Michigan.

This commission would report back to the governor and the legislature about what they think is the best course of action to help fix Michigan’s education system.

The commission will not be able to make many sweeping recommendations on how universities are run unless it suggests adding a central governing body in place of the autonomous boards of the universities, a move that would not likely make it far with the voters, and is not in the best interest of the universities or students.

What this commission can do is highlight the problems with the higher education system in Michigan so that the citizens become engaged. Ultimately, if Michiganders as a whole feel the system is broken, it is up to us to fix it.

If higher education is going to receive more funding, then one of two things has to happen: revenue has to increase through tax increases or spending has to decrease in some other area of the budget. It is our duty as citizens to tell our legislators what we feel is important. If you value education as more important than other areas, it is your responsibility to tell our legislators that you feel money for higher education should be taken from that budget.

If you feel tax increases are needed to fund universities, then advocate for a tax increase, where the revenue from that increase goes strictly to higher education.

If Michigan is going to succeed, we have to place a great importance on higher education, and the acceptance of a 25-75 percent state funding to tuition ratio says that our citizens have not yet done that.

There is no easy solution to fixing higher education in Michigan, but an open discussion that looks at every potential option is a good and necessary start.

Editor’s note: Nathan Inks is currently president of College Republicans

 

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  • Anonymous

    The cost of higher education is ridiculous, my son wanted to go to college but we could not afford so we choose the “High Speed Universities” for his education while working now he working for fortune 500

  • Michmediaperson

    The fix is easy.

    Schools like CMU, WMU, EMU should be very limited to research.

    Maybe allow everyone but MSU and UM be limited to 2 or 3 areas where they specialize in.

    Ferris might be pharmacy.  WMU may be paper science and aviation.  CMU might be audiology and something else.

    But, no liberal arts research!

    At all schools except MSU and UM, (I don’t know enough about Wayne State) eliminate half the faculty and with no research, they can teach 5-6 courses.  With the elimination of people, you can cut labor costs significantly.

    Give a small pay raise to the survivors.

    You can cut tuition significantly, probably down to the $180-200 an hour mark which will make higher ed extremely affordable.

    Then, what I would do to make additional income.  You can have some faculty members teach older adults in a University of Phoenix-type business model which would bring additional income to faculty.

    In fact, under michmediaperson, CMU faculty would make far more money than what Laura Frey and the union is offering….and they could work a 40-50 hour work week since 95 percent would not be in the research racket.

    We could retrain unemployed Michigan residents under a University of Phoenix-type model but CMU, WMU, Ferris, Saginaw Valley would make the income which could make faculty a lot more $$$$ than what the current system does.

    The fix is simple.

    What’s bogging down higher education is all this unnecessary research.  We don’t need any more research on Shakespeare, the Civil War, the American Idol TV show…..we need lower tuition and 21st Century technology skills for every college student in Michigan.

    Anytime George Ross wants Michmediaperson to come to the Board of Trustees meeting to go over my plan, I’m available.

    Problem is higher education is entranched in a business model that no longer works.  That’s why schools like the University of Phoenix, ITT, Keller Graduate School of Management, keeps popping up everywhere.

    What’s really sad is when you hear (and I like Rick Snyder) Snyder saying we need to bring in foreigners for high tech, etc.  Same pitch Mike Rao gave here.

    That’s anti-American.

    We need to quickly and I mean quickly train unemployed Michigan workers so we don’t need to bring in foreigners.  The problem is the current system doesn’t allow for it.

    Let me add one other point.  We don’t need 21 universities offering women’s studies, sports studies, etc.  Get it down to 3 or 4 schools.  Streamline.

    Anytime George Ross wants to talk, michmediaperson is ready.

    P.S.-I’ve got a lot of other money-making ideas for CMU so George let’s talk.

  • Ben Steiner Brothers

    “In fact, under michmediaperson, CMU faculty would make far more money than what Laura Frey and the union is offering….and they could work a 40-50 hour work week since 95 percent would not be in the research racket.”

    Under Michmediaperson, the faculty would be crushed to death by mounds of blubber and bad posting.

  • Guest

    “We don’t need any more research on Shakespeare, the Civil War …”

    Exactly. All they end up doing is wasting money. Everything has been written, so they just come up with something that trashes Western civilization and “white imperialism.”