BATON ROUGE — The heads of Louisiana’s college and university systems gave state lawmakers an earful Wednesday, mentioning the challenges faced after years of repeated budget cuts and the threat of more to follow this session.
For nearly seven hours, members of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Postsecondary Education heard from those officials about the need to fund higher education. However, no guarantee was given that colleges and universities would be spared from additional cuts for the fiscal year that starts July 1.
Monty Sullivan, president of the Louisiana Community and Technical College System, said lawmakers shouldn’t think of how much they can cut because the schools are already stretched thin enough.
“The truth is, you can’t balance the state budget on our backs,” Sullivan said. “More with less has been done.”
Joe Rallo, commissioner of higher education, said lawmakers should fund education “as an investment, not a cost.” He said there are 5,000 fewer employees at public colleges since the cuts began in 2008.
One of the big concerns involves funding of the TOPS program. Unless more money is raised, Gov. John Bel Edwards’ proposed budget calls for TOPS to be $82 million short of being fully funded, or cover nearly 72 percent of tuition costs.
Sullivan said 80 percent of the more than 28,000 graduates from community and technical colleges earned degrees from “high-demand, high-wage fields.”
‘The truth is, you can’t balance the state budget on our backs. More with less has been done.’
Monty Sullivan
President, Louisiana Community and Technical College System
“An investment in our institutions represents an investment in the people of Louisiana and creates taxpayers,” he said. “At a time when we are down revenue, would we want to create new taxpayers? I would think we would.”
Sullivan said there are more than 18,000 available jobs annually within a certification or industry-based credential. The missing resource, he said, is the funding to train and educate students to fill those jobs.
LSU President F. King Alexander said that if the university is cut this year, it will be the 17th time in less than 10 years. He said the main campus ranks 46th out of 50 on money spent per student, but ranks 24th in its graduation rate.
He said cutting TOPS is causing students to consider offers from out-of-state universities. LSU has also lost 500 faculty members over the last 10 years, he said.
Rep. Walt Leger, D-New Orleans, said the state should generate more money and allocate it toward higher education.
“We either do it or we don’t,” he said. “It’s really just so simple to me.”
Rep. John Schroder, RCovington, shot back, saying budget flexibility is the “first problem” the state needs to address.
Rep. Beryl Amedee, RHouma, said TOPS is on an unsustainable course in terms of funding.
While not a member of the subcommittee, Rep. Mark Abraham, R-Lake Charles, sat in during the hearing. He said the state has a workforce gap that can be remedied by investing money into education.
“Education and economic development go hand in hand,” he said. “We need to provide the universities with the resources they need.”
Abraham said the amount of money spent per student is a good indicator of how efficient the state is in spending its money.
“Last year, we were 48th in the country on money spent per student,” he said. “Now, we’re 49th, and were last in the Southern regional average. So I don’t know how we can even think of asking them to cut and do more with less when they’re already doing that now.”
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