An alternative to Governor Biven’s at best hazy and uncompromising budget position.  Well worth the read, as usual, from the excellent KY Policy blog. The General Assembly has less than two months to finalize the next two-year state budget. Although the governor’s budget rightly takes a big step toward fully funding our pension liabilities, taken
Read More

WKU President Gary Ransdell gives an official response to higher education budget cuts in Kentucky.  The short and sweet?  Get politically active. Dear Friends: We are approaching a lost decade of state funding for higher education in Kentucky, marked by state budget cuts of more than $173 million since 2008, rising tuition, and flat compensation for
Read More

Political jockeying has begun as the House holds hearings on the budget.    FRANKFORT — Monday will make the 32nd day of this year’s 60-day budget session, and Senate Republicans are anxious to get their hands on the $21.8 billion biennial spending plan. Senate President Robert Stivers, who on Thursday took to the Senate floor
Read More

Aspirational, yes.  Aspiring to the bottom.  

Governor Bevin’s budget includes nine percent across the board cuts to most state services. If these cuts go into effect, many areas will have been cut by 15 to 50 percent since 2008. The infographic below highlights some potential harmful effects from such cuts. read more Source: Infographic: Budget Cuts Have Costs and Consequences –
Read More

Source: University of Oklahoma regents approve retirement offer to reduce impact of state budget cuts | News OK Is this a possibility at WKU and the other universities in Kentucky?  And what will be the unforeseen consequences of such a massive retirement? Little or no rehiring?  More adjuncts? No one knows.  In complex systems that
Read More

This email from Eric Bain-Selbo Colleagues, Given Gov. Bevin’s proposed budget cuts for higher education, rising tuition, and burgeoning student debt, I can’t imagine a more timely event than this Tax Justice and Tuition Workshop on Thursday, Feb. 11, from 2-4 pm. The workshop (presented by Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, and sponsored on campus by
Read More

“Since 2008, we, the state, have cut the general fund appropriation by $165 million for all eight universities,” Seum said. “Since 2008, the universities have increased tuition by $572 million.” Source: Kentucky Senate to hear tuition freeze bill | News | wkuherald.com   I have been talking with students about why there have been clockwork
Read More

Source: Is Berkeley getting ready to consider a queen sacrifice? | Bryan Alexander   Bryan Alexander puts his blogging fingers to the pulse of the issue. This is a pitched battle for the survival of the idea of the university. If a big outfit like UCBerkeley is considering contraction, amalgamation, or the “Queen Sacrifice”, how
Read More