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Issue: Higher Education
West Virginia's new higher education bill takes effect this month. This was a bill rushed through at the end of the legislative session at a time
when members of the House of Delegates had no time even to read revisions.
The bill which eventually reached Governor Underwood's following an initial
veto is somewhat improved: for example, the state funding formula is no
longer based on enrollment, a situation which previously punished schools
with large numbers of part-time students. But the overall approach to
higher education in West Virginia is even more seriously flawed than
before.
Here are the basic problems:
First, higher education should not be a political football. If you are
having heart surgery, would you want to go to a hospital run by doctors or
a hospital run by politicians? The answer is obvious. Yet higher
education planning in this state ignores those most knowledgeable -- the
presidents, administrators, faculty and students of our colleges. The
higher ed bill was shaped by politicians advised by out-of-state
consultants. They did not even visit college campuses.
Second, the state taxpayer should not be paying for glorified pork-barrel
projects in the guise of higher education. West Virginia already has more
four-year and community colleges per capita than most states. Why spend
millions on new buildings in places like Beckley and Hardy County when
those areas are already being served by Shepherd and Concord Colleges? Why
build a new community college in the Kanawha Valley when Marshall and West
Virginia State already serve that need with existing facilities?
Third, higher education is not glorified vocational training. The avowed
purpose of the state's higher education reform bill is to tie higher
education to economic growth. According to the Business Roundtable, which
pushed the bill, what is wanted is employees who will be narrowly trained,
not well-rounded, so that they will not leave and start their own
businesses or do anything more than fit comfortably into preexisting slots.
This is not what higher education should be about.
A college graduate should be able to read and write clearly, to reason, to
offer opinions and make strong arguments, and be solidly grounded in a wide
variety of subjects from history to literature to the sciences to
technology and the arts. Graduates should not only know things but know
where to find things they don't know, so they can continue the process of
self-education.
Studies show that the average person will change jobs and even fields
several times during his or her employed life. It is also true that states
with the healthiest economies have a work force that is creative and that
more and more people are working for themselves. And progressive companies
want to do their own technical training -- what they want from the colleges
is a well-rounded thoughtful individual.
Finally, it must be noted that the states with the strongest higher
education systems are the states where politicians keep their hands off --
places like the Midwestern states and North Carolina. And North Carolina
demonstrates that the only way higher ed can help with economic growth is
for the institutions themselves to be encouraged to become world-class
colleges and universities, not vo-tech centers.
