Washington – In 1997, then- Gov. Mike Leavitt of Utah proclaimed Western Governors University the future of education and said that within three years the school would have 14,000 students and be self-sufficient. Well, not exactly.
Earlier this month, eight years after the school opened and thanks to an infusion of $21 million from the federal government, the university handed out its 1,047th degree.
Officials of the online, competency-based university without brick-and-mortar classrooms call it a success story.
What success the school has, critics say, is due to the federal government’s becoming a chief booster of the university, which was started by 19 Western states and headquartered in Utah.
Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, has been WGU’s biggest fan in Congress, steering millions to the school through special budget line items known as earmarks, a way for members of Congress to bypass the regular budget process and funnel money to their states and causes.
“This is a startup operation that is producing significant economic benefit for the entire Western states,” Bennett says. That’s why, he says from his perch on the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, he has worked to get money to the school.
Between 2000 and 2006 when WGU saw about $12 million in earmarks, other Utah schools were receiving much less, according to the database of earmarks compiled by the nonprofit, nonpartisan Citizens Against Government Waste, which includes all earmarks dating back to 1995.
The University of Utah got $3.34 million in earmarks and Brigham Young University saw about $900,000. Utah State University received $14.47 million.
That database does not include millions in research grants and other federal money that the University of Utah, Utah State and BYU receive through legislation and department funding and not through earmarks.
In two of the six years Western Governors University has received earmarks, money came not from the education spending bill but from the Defense Department.
“That’s one of the more egregious Defense pork-barrel earmarks,” says David Williams, vice president for policy at Citizens Against Government Waste. “This is near the top of our list.”
