Our views for June 14, 2009

• Advocate Opinion page staff
• Published: Jun 14, 2009

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Gov. Bobby Jindal has been dragged, week by week, into supporting the ad hoc plans in the Legislature to patch his proposed cuts in higher education. Even today, he continues to oppose a temporary suspension of a tax cut that would provide $118 million in funding for colleges.

This is the opposite of boldness. He is part of the problem, and for whatever reason — just about everyone in the State Capitol believes it is because of national ambitions — he is against new revenue to shore up the state’s primary functions.

But we want to say that we agree with two of his positions taken during this acrimonious budget debate.

One thing he’s absolutely right on is that the state faces budget problems over the coming years. To patch the budget with one-time money — whether from the federal stimulus or other sources — kicks a big problem down the road. Dodging the fiscal 2010 train doesn’t mean a lot if nothing is done before the fiscal 2011 and 2012 deficits barrel down the tracks.

Another thing he’s absolutely right on is that higher education in Louisiana will have to be leaner in this new economic situation.

The Council for a Better Louisiana is also in the position of both being critical of Jindal’s education cuts and agreeing with the governor that change has to come to a higher education system that’s not going to get the big increases in funding it’s enjoyed for the past decade.

A variety of players in this drama recognize the need for urgent change: CABL, Jindal, the Board of Regents. House Speaker Jim Tucker, R-Terrytown, calls for a higher education commission to recommend a substantial revision to today’s system. The Regents, under the leadership of Commissioner of Higher Education Sally Clausen, already have made some tough decisions in cutting more than 70 low-attendance programs in colleges.

Much more, though, remains to be done.

The question we have is whether there’s an appropriate sense of urgency about the drastic steps that ought to be taken. Two examples: Southern University in New Orleans and LSU at Alexandria. These are the two outliers in today’s system, one of them with a poor graduation performance, another new and created by political maneuvering only a few years ago.

In the private sector, those would be the first to be seen as merger prospects, or in LSU-A’s case, repositioning it as a comprehensive community college, or as a joint campus with nearby Northwestern State. But those decisions are tough politically. Each institution has its backers, and each has its good points — not least the heroic efforts of SUNO’s faculty and staff to recover from the 2005 hurricanes.

But even if everyone in the state agreed to merge those campuses with nearby colleges, or change them in other ways, the actual financial savings would be a year or two down the road.

Nor are they the only obvious targets for drastic changes — north Louisiana has a plethora of two- and four-year campuses within short drives of each other. Surely economies can be found there, too. But how fast is our political system, splintered as it is, willing to deal with budgetary reality?

We fear the outcome: Institutions protecting themselves, boldly noncommittal politicians such as Jindal avoiding specific cuts, legislators favoring cutting anyone but their own local campuses.