Dear House Appropriations Committee, Please Call Me To Testify On Higher Education Cuts
By Kevin Boyd
I’m watching the SGA presidents from all over the state’s public universities come up to the state capitol to testify against the “draconian” budget cuts. After watching the testimony, I actually wonder if we’re not cutting universities enough. Many of these kids were barely articulate and failed to present a single rational or logical argument.
These kids were complaining about how budget cuts were forcing students to actually work. The horror of not being able to go out and drink every night.
Some of these kids were comparing tuition increases to tax increases. The difference between the two is of course students can choose to pay the tuition while the taxes must be paid.
These geniuses also had a solution to increase funding at universities, in addition to raising taxes. They wanted to lower admissions standards at state universities while allowing them to have remedial classes. As more dummies fill the classrooms of Louisiana universities, the degrees will become even more useless than they already are.
Meanwhile, other students were bemoaning the travesty of professors actually having a higher work load than Bob Mann’s at LSU, which is two classes a semester for which he makes $120,000 a year.
Finally, some of these special snowflakes were threatening to take their “talents” out of state if higher ed was cut. I honestly don’t fail to see how this is a bad thing for Louisiana in most cases.
Instead of sob stories from entitled special snowflakes, the House Appropriations Committee needs to hear the truth which is our higher education system is a bloated failure.
Grambling and Southern are absolute failures at graduating black students.
Grambling and SUNO are absolute failures in general.
LSU-Alexandria and Nicholls need to be closed or cut loose from the state.
Instead of politics determining which universities get funded, how about transforming TOPS into a voucher program and let the marketplace decide the fate of the universities?
Oh and the state’s overall four-year university graduation rate at 45% is 14% below the national average.
Why do we have three separate university systems?These are poor quality to mediocre institutions that need market based competition, not state handouts. They have crowded private competitors. Ask yourself why heavily Catholic south-central and southwest Louisiana don’t have any Catholic universities?
Before you approve tax increases to continue supporting failure, please listen to another side.
Lincoln Parish News Online 
04/15/2015 at 7:14 pm |
I feel so sorry for them Bo hoo. Pity the poor students having to work that’s just about as bad as it gets. Raise the bar and quit letting just anybody with poor grades,let the students with good grades have a chance. The professors who make six figure salarys need to go by the book and quit teaching their socialist ideas. Every body can not go to college,it would be nice if everyone were college material but they are not. If students had to work to pay for college I guarantee they would quit partying and try to make the best of it. Close Grambling,Southern,Lsu at Alexandrea and others that do not make the grade.Put that money on students that really want to work and get a better education. Then you will see our state come out of the rut our education institutions are in now. We can not afford to have a black colleges just because it’s black,we can do better than we are doing now. Work with the money we have now and quit throwing good money after bad.
Have a good day,
Oldman
04/15/2015 at 7:38 pm |
You are out of touch with the education system in Louisiana if you think all teachers are pushing socialist agendas.
04/15/2015 at 7:40 pm |
But yes, close those failing schools and use the money to improve the schools trying and succeeding to graduate students.
04/15/2015 at 8:37 pm |
Alas, I think we should give up. There isn’t even a glimmer of hope anymore. This article is so fraught with errors, one doesn’t know where to begin.
Here’s a start: if you think closing schools will save this state money, which it will in turn put into the schools that stay open, then you don’t know anything about this state, or its politics. It is really just that simple. I sometimes wonder if people up here don’t intentionally live in a bubble. It protects you from the hard truth.
04/15/2015 at 9:59 pm |
Really? ULM just consolidated several colleges to cut down on administrative costs and it seems to have worked.
Increase those measures ten fold by closing a failing school. If Grambling was closed and all the teachers and students went to Tech, you would have savings in the form of less administrative costs, maintenance costs, utility costs. And all the students tuition would be consolidated, maybe not providing more money but at least supporting the increased strain on Tech’s services.
04/15/2015 at 10:01 pm |
Closing multiple schools may be a worst case scenario but as an article posted here not a few weeks ago pointed out, Louisiana has more schools than Florida with a smaller population. If this were a business, closing a struggling franchisee would be a valid option.
04/16/2015 at 5:56 am |
Just a question, what is the population comparison between Florida and Louisiana for the 17-23 year-old age bracket?
04/16/2015 at 7:17 am |
This is from the 2010 Census and doesn’t include out of state students. But it’s still a clear indicator of the differences between the two states.
Florida
15 to 19 years – 1,228,382
20 to 24 years – 1,228,758
Louisiana
15 to 19 years – 326,779
20 to 24 years – 338,309
04/15/2015 at 10:27 pm |
dude the hard truth is money don’t grow on trees and everybody is not college material. Close the non performing schools,raise the entry grade and don’t worry about were the extra money went. Put all your energy on the good schools with the remaining money. Then you will have a graduate that’s able to take charge and go with it. Get only the top 25 percent of high school graduates into college,best teachers and you will turn out a higher class of graduate. The teachers that can not perform,need to be fired never to teach again. Some colleges need to be closed,some teachers need to be fired,students with less than a B average need not go to college. Students with less than a B average may need to go to a trade school or go to work if able. A lot go to college just because parents have the money and a lot go just to get out of working or to party. A lot of college graduates are not even McDonald or Burger King material. We can do better than that. The hard truth is the money can be better spent than it is now. No teacher is worth a six figure salarys and we don’t need all the colleges we have now. Keep on raising taxes and soon you will have a taxpayer that’s unable to pay,then were are you going to be,Broke.
04/16/2015 at 7:13 am |
Less than a B average? Where will all of these high school educated people work when even the most basic office job requires a bachelor degree?
You’d have people that couldn’t qualify for white collar work and that wouldn’t necessarily be suited for blue collar work. That’s not a great idea.
04/16/2015 at 8:03 am |
When did it take a bachelor degree for a basic office job? Since the 60’s we have lower test scores for minorities until a high school senior today could not pass a 7th test of the 60’s. Two years of college today is like a 12th education yesterday.
04/17/2015 at 10:36 pm |
I’m not talking about being a secretary or administrative assistant. Take a look at CenturyLink’s career page, see what degree you need to work there in any kind of IT, accounting, finance, marketing or general business field.
04/17/2015 at 10:39 pm |
You keep making up these claims of lowering test scores to allow minorities to pass, are you ever going to back that claim up?
04/16/2015 at 9:40 pm |
50% of all Louisiana students are below average. That is an indictment of the Education Industry. Cut their budgets until they improve!
04/17/2015 at 10:37 pm |
They are failing with their current budget so we’ll take away money and expect better results.
I know, fire all the bad teachers and give raises to the good teachers. They’ll deserve one when their classroom sizes double.
04/18/2015 at 12:43 pm |
Anonymous @ 10:37, sounds like a very good idea.
04/20/2015 at 9:21 am |
You don’t have any first-hand knowledge of how our education system works, do you? Either on the teacher side or the administration side.
04/20/2015 at 12:20 pm |
You dont know either Anonymous—you run your mouth on everything NOT knowing the truth about anything lol.
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 2015 21:20:03 +0000 To: dannymb52@hotmail.com