News -> Letters to the Editor TUE, JUL 7 11:00PM by Raymond S. Blanco, vice president (retired), UL Lafayette

House speaker doesn’t get it

During the recent session of the Louisiana Legislature, House Speaker Jim Tucker, R-New Orleans, and his hand-picked Chairman of Appropriations Jim Fannin, D-Jonesboro, fought mightily to inflict severe and destructive cuts on higher education, doing little to nothing to mitigate this budget problem.  

I understand the need for cuts given the current budget forecasts, but it was Speaker Tucker’s angry tirade against the state’s colleges and universities that revealed how little respect our purported leaders hold for higher education in Louisiana, and how little understanding they have for the critical need to properly invest in higher education. In his fury, he made all sorts of negative accusations, but basically declared higher education to be dysfunctional.  

As a retired university administrator of 46 years, I can say with some authority that he is right. Higher education in Louisiana is dysfunctional. It is so because of short-sighted, arrogant politicians like Tucker who devalue and insult the most important economic development engine driving this state. His immature demagoguery is an unpleasant tactic that attempts to justify severe cuts on the very colleges and universities that produced people such as himself. This under-funding ultimately cheats our young people from getting the best education possible. 

His relish for unnecessarily debilitating higher education is ironic, as he was one of the prime leaders of the move to triple his own legislative pay, an effort rejected by the citizens of Louisiana. Tucker seems to believe that our campuses can adequately educate our people and be nationally competitive on the same short budgets of yesteryear. Thankfully, Senate President Joel Chaisson, D-Destrehan, and Senate Finance Chairman Mike Michot, R-Lafayette, had the foresight and courage to mitigate the severe cuts to higher education, forcing Tucker and company to come to the negotiation table. 

I highly recommend that Gov. Bobby Jindal rein Tucker in as quickly as possible or he will find that instead of retaining and bringing our best and brightest home, he will be the governor saying to our best and brightest, “Last one to leave, please turn out the lights.”

Comments (8)add
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written by Myrick6 , July 08, 2009 - 02:13 pm
Higher ed in Louisiana is BLOATED, WASTEFUL, AND CATERS TO ITS OWN without regard to what is best for the state. Since statistics now show less than 1/2 of the students in Louisiana are utilizing the university system, there are too many universities, too many professors, too much duplication and too many fat salaries and retirements. Some in education may not like to hear that truth or the fact that Joe Citizen is sick of it. I commend those with the testicular fortitude to address the situation and face down those who threaten anyone who is brave enough to do so. I'm not alone in those sentiments - we just don't have any unions to represent us. We have legislators though and they are hearing from us.
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written by Farrow , July 08, 2009 - 03:38 pm
Myrick6, your anti-intellectual bias is recognized, and I can see you come from the good ol' boy school of thought that holds "I didn't go to college and look at me!"

Take, however, the GI Bill of Rights of 1944, which permitted thousands of Americans to attend college who could not have previously done so due to lack of personal funding: The US government was ultimately able to recoup the bill's expenses because those GIs who attended college obtained higher paying jobs which in turn resulted in higher tax revenues for the government.

In short, putting money into higher education is not an expense, but an investment that returns tremendous yields, monetarily and otherwise.

Furthermore, anyone who knows that UL, for example, has been shutting down on weekends and afternoons, simply because it cannot afford to pay its electricity bills -- thus denying its students and faculty crucial access to classrooms, laboratories, studios, the library -- would not claim that higher ed in Louisiana is "bloated" and "wasteful."
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written by Myrick6 , July 08, 2009 - 09:18 pm
Why would you presume I didn't attend a university? I am a graduate of USL, but I have no bias against those who don't hold a degree. The GI Bill you refer to allowed my father an education he otherwise probably would not have had access to. He walked out of the sharecropper cotton fields into awaiting bus that took him to his Army physical. He was a Korean veteran. There was no alternative to university offered in his household and we all knew our lives would begin after completing our degrees. I know of many who didn't have that option, or decided against it, and are bright and successful and I've never thought less of them for not having a degree. I still believe "the sacred cow" needs paring down. Its become more "big business" in this state and I'm tired of my legislators cowering in fear of those in the ivory tower.
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written by joefromla , July 09, 2009 - 01:49 pm
Myric6, I challenge you to look at the UL budget (it's public record, in the library), and give us a few examples of what you'd like to cut. The library? The graduate school? Computer science? The art department? Maybe there's a particular professor you'd like to see fired?

I have known a few educators in my day, and I have yet to see one who could make a legislator "cower." In fact, for most of my life, it's been the university administrators who have had to cower to the mugwump legislature. The idea that universities in this state are "sacred cows" is ludicrous considering that the legislators regularly have a "sacred cow" barbecue every time the budget gets tight.
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written by Phil , August 18, 2009 - 01:03 am
And when the budget coffers are bursting at the seams, it's PORK and BEANS, no dollar left unspent.
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written by northsidian , September 11, 2009 - 04:14 pm
joefromla, Let's cut to the chase!! Jerry Luke Leblanc makes over $200,000. in a position created for him by the Blanco's!! What say you boy?
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written by NORTHSIDIANS SHOTGUN , September 18, 2009 - 12:52 am
I gots your back " BOSS ".I'm just trying to get some health insuance
like the Blanco's.My Man," Raymond," HE "was an educational administrator for 46 years. he got goood insurance. Im Glad he followed Mama Blanco over the bridge. I wonder where he was for Katrina i'd say on the same plane with Mama Blanco & Nagin.
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written by NORTHSIDIAN SHOTGUN , September 25, 2009 - 03:23 am
DEE WANT TO BE A MAJOR PLAYAH. IF NORTHSIDIAN DON'T GO FOR DA MAYORAL POST. He WON'T HAVE AH CAREER IN DIS VERY CRIPPLED COMMUNITY TODAY! THAT, I GREW UP IN WHEN DA BOUDREAUXs , THIBODEAUX , BREAUXS CARRIED US TO SCHOOL AT DA N.P. MOSS ON THEIE WAGONS WE DIDN'T HAVE DOSE CAMERAS TO MAKE PEOPLE PAY THEIR MONEY. DEY DON'T HAVE TO GET NICER BEDS W/ NICE LINEN AND FLAT SCREENS FOR DA JAILS > DAS NOT PROGRESS DAS BENDING OVAH OWEEEE< WERES DA VASELINE. DA NAMES HERE HAVE CHANGED
DEY FIX IT WERE U CAN'T VOTE FOR A TRUE CAJUN! DEY ROBBIN DA LOUISIANA MOTORS < DA SCHOEFFLER CADILLAC DEY MONOPOLIZING ALL DA BUSINESS DEY GOT DA DEM PEOPLE ON BAD DRUGS TELLING US HOIMAN'S BIG UGLY FACES IS ART. HEY WHAT DEY GOIN TO SAY , DEY INSURING DEY SELL THEIR WEIRD FACES, DA BLUE DOGS AND DA REALLY UGLEEE ART AT DA DOWN TOWN ALIVE "PAINT SPLASH FEST" MIGRATED FROM PARTS UNKNOWN TO KISS HOIMANs BIG WATER HEAD>
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