Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Revenue Neutral Higher-Education Reform Probably Isn't Reform

Goldy at Horse's Ass spots a task force of "civic leaders" who brainstorm some ways to tweak higher ed in Washington State, but which seem to have started from the premise that government spending on education. Thanks to the lack of a state income tax as well as various initiative-driven procedural nonsense that makes it difficult to raise taxes, and bipartisan paranoia when it comes to tax increases, state education funding at the K-12 level has already dropped perilously close to Deep South levels, and state-run college education appears to be the next target. As he points out, most of the proposals don't improve higher ed, they "make it cheaper… and in every sense of the word."

Some of the reforms may be good ideas, but the political consensus that the size of government is currently at an ideal level eliminates a number of avenues for reform in a wide variety of areas.

1 comment:

janinsanfran said...

Californication in progress?