Volume: 59 Issue: 16
BY NIGEL WASHINGTON Editor-in-Chief The future of higher education hangs in limbo as Gov. John Bel Edwards and the state legislature work to cut into a projected $940 million budget deficit for the current fiscal year. Last week, Edwards, who was inaugurated in January, addressed the state about the financial situation hours after it was announced that the TOPS program would be suspended immediately. “Tonight I speak to you as no other Louisiana governor has ever spoken to our state, because the challenges have never been so great, nor the impacts so severe for all of us who live, work or go to school here,” Edwards opened with in his televised statewide speech. Edwards presented a doomsday scenario if the budget deficit for the current fiscal year isn’t settled by June 30, which included all public universities being shut down and students receiving incomplete grades, even national powerhouse LSU. Edwards specifically singled out LSU football as a potential casualty if the problems in the budget are not fixed. “If you are a student attending one of these universities, it means
FEBRUARY 17, 2016
that you will receive a grade of incomplete, many students will not be able to graduate and student athletes across the state at those schools will be ineligible to play next semester. That means you can say farewell to college football next fall,” Edwards said on Thursday. Since the initial announcement, TOPS has been resumed, but with only around 25 percent of the funding. Students who have TOPS currently will have their tuition picked up by the universities, lessening the burden of students, but increasing the financial despair by higher education. Next year, fewer students will have the opportunity to receive TOPS, and in a worst-case scenario, students would need to score a 28 on the ACT to be eligible for TOPS. Universities aren’t facing the guillotine alone as some hospitals and health care programs are at risk of being closed as well. “We’re kind of at defcon three or four,” said Edward Chervenak, a UNO political science assistant professor. “We’re not at defcon 5 yet, but we’re getting there and they’re trying to prevent us from getting there.” Even though Edwards said in his speech “These are not scare tactics,” what he presented to
Louisianans was the worst-case scenario if the budget isn’t figured out. “I’d say it’s less than 50 percent [chance that universities close],” Chervenak said. “I think cooler heads will prevail and they know the damage if universities are left with no funding and we’re closing mid semester and leaving students in a lurch.” Michael G. Huelshoff, Associate Professor and Chair of the Political Science Department, agreed with Chervenak’s statement. “I think it would be hard to shut down any schools because of the political side of it,” Huelshoff said. In an effort to make up for the deficit, Edwards called a special session with state legislators and elected officials on Sunday. During the session, he spoke on his proposed budget plan that included raising various forms of taxes, obtaining $128 million from the Rainy Day Fund, another $200 million from the BP oil spill settlement and reducing state contracts and tax credits from corporations. Most of the proposed tax increases could go into effect by April, but that’s if Edwards earns the right amount of supporters, which isn’t likely. The main priority for legisla-
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tors and officials is finding new forms of revenue. If taxes aren’t raised, then expect bigger cuts into higher education and health care in addition to the cuts they would already be facing in the months soon after for the next fiscal year. The Edwards administration stated that under the best-case scenario, universities would be looking at $70 million cuts by July. Edwards’ suggested options are meant to be both short-term and long-term solutions to the current budget problem that will ultimately last longer than just this fiscal year. “In the end we’re going to need much more structural reforms in terms of providing a steady stream of revenue,” Chervenak said. “Short term, they’ve got to focus on ways to raise revenue and cut spending outside of higher education and healthcare.” Even if legislatures are able to squeeze by the budget for this fiscal year, they’ll be facing a projected $2 billion debt for next year and will put universities back on the chopping block. “The universities are still going to face cuts,” Chervenak said. “Personnel will have to be let go, I don’t know where that’s going to happen because there’s no more cutting anymore fat,
we’ve reached the point where it’s become amputations. Does that mean shutting down departments? Closing programs? Reducing staff? Those are very difficult questions.” While the fixes to the budget will need to happen quickly, the worst budget deficit in Louisiana history will most likely be an ongoing issue for many years and will not go away quietly. “This is not going to be easy. This has been going on for almost the last decade and it’ll probably take another 10 to 15 years to fix this problem, this is not going to go away soon. You eventually have to hit bottom and then slowly build back up,” Chervenak said. “Nothing is going to happen overnight,” he added. “This is a long, slow process.” Until Edwards, legislators and officials can come to an agreement on what to cut, what taxes to raise and continue searching for funds, citizens are urged to contact their representatives to help push for answers. Chervenak said, “Students and their parents need to contact their representatives and say, ‘Hey, what are you going to do? How are you going to fix this? Call, email and write a letter to your representative. That way they get the message.”