Armed with charts showing how strapped they are for money, Colorado’s colleges and universities elbowed each other vigorously at the statehouse this year as they jockeyed for cash.
And they’ve been spending record amounts of money – more than $1.8 million this year – to lobby state and federal lawmakers for better funding. Some lawmakers have decried the amount, saying it should be used to help keep a lid on tuition.
The jaw-dropping lobbying tab may look unseemly, but it is a direct result of Colorado’s ridiculous budgeting process, where the loudest interests are often the ones that get funded. Colleges and universities have no choice but to bludgeon one another as they scrounge for scraps.
The University of Colorado has budgeted the most for state and federal lobbyists, $799,000, and it has benefitted the most, reaping an extra $16.2 million in federal earmarks and millions from Colorado’s tobacco settlement funds for the Health Sciences Center.
The $1.8 million lobbying figure, and the fact Colorado’s schools are pitted against one another, only underscores the need for a new higher education funding formula.
Colorado State University President Larry Penley, who was criticized by some lawmakers for CSU’s last-ditch attempt to amend the budget to its benefit, has been a strong and effective voice for changing the state’s budget formula. He thinks schools should be funded based on the actual costs of the programs they deliver.
Colorado once employed that common- sense tactic, but it was discarded in recent years because of tough state budget cuts.
CU President Hank Brown, himself a former lawmaker, noted that in years past the legislature would use objective national data and information on faculty workloads, enrollment and program costs to determine each school’s share of the pie. Now, the state hands out money to whomever is in favor with the higher-education department. “The quality of the decisions has suffered because of it,” Brown said.
Colorado Commission on Higher Education chief David Skaggs is bringing school leaders together for a summit on this topic. It’s imperative. Not only does the pie need to be divided more sensibly, but a new funding stream for higher education also must be agreed upon.
Colorado’s economic future depends on our state’s public higher education system succeeding, and it’s not healthy to have our colleges and universities battling one another for money.
