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Sharma: Commonwealth should preserve progress made in public education

By Mahesh Sharma / Guest Columnist
Thursday, July 25, 2002

Current budget woes in the Commonwealth are threatening to turn back the clock for public education.

With the state facing a revenue shortfall of more than $2 billion, public higher education is at risk of returning to the blight of the last recession which brought faculty layoffs, overcrowded classes, program cuts, freezes on equipment purchases, and restrictions on capital expenditures.

A study by the Massachusetts Institute for Social and Economic Research cites several basic truths, including:

U Higher education equals higher earnings, which equal a higher standard of living and quality of life for the Commonwealth.

U Public universities and colleges - not independent ones - are the primary providers of higher education for Massachusetts residents who remain in the Commonwealth.

Add to these truths the fact that the Commonwealth's future is tied to the new citizens who settle here. Demographic projections for the next 25 years indicate that the largest pool of future workers will be immigrants from many different places and cultures. Massachusetts faces the daunting challenge of educating this disparate population to a level of literacy and technical competence that will allow it to succeed in today's knowledge-based economy.

The Commonwealth's independent colleges recognize that strong public colleges are essential to ensuring that all students have access to an education that will equip them with the skills they need to succeed. Not all potential college students can attend independent colleges. The public and independent educational systems must maintain a partnership to educate all of the Commonwealth's citizens.

Elite, independent schools like MIT and Harvard will be on the front of creating new knowledge and educating leaders for the society as they have done in the past, but they have little to contribute to the second and third tier of the new workforce for the Commonwealth. It is the graduates of public colleges and universities who bring the advance ideas from the research labs to common uses and everyday applications.

The reality is that community colleges and state colleges and universities have taken responsibility for educating and training our culturally diverse students to enter the halls of corporate America, government, and academia and join the ranks of leaders.

The majority of first time college students from middle and lower classes are not found in elite universities; they are found in public colleges and universities. Public education will give these new citizens the opportunity to learn the rules and rituals of a society driven by new social, economic, and technological realities. Public education will help them achieve the American dream.

Cutting budgets for higher education and reversing the gains of educational reform on the K-12 level is not only shortsighted, but also counterproductive. Deep cuts made in FY 2002 already have reduced course offerings, increased class sizes, halted equipment purchases and building renovations, and prevented libraries from buying essential books and scholarly journals. The FY 2003 budget calls for an additional funding cut of $6.8 million in funding to public higher education, bringing the total reduction since FY 2001 to $67.5 million.

Massachusetts has been in the vanguard of education reform, emphasizing clear, rigorous academic standards and accountability for student learning. Yet, with revenue falling, the Commonwealth is making education the sacrificial lamb. In our changing educational landscape, Massachusetts is turning from a national success story to the poster child for educational decay.

The Center for the Study of Education Policy at Illinois State University reports that Massachusetts currently ranks 49th in spending for public higher education. For a state with a long and rich heritage of valuing education, this is not an acceptable statistic. We should not undo the monumental progress that was made in the past decade. The 2003 budget should sustain our progress, not dismantle it.

It's interesting to observe that when there is a will and a commitment on the part of the Legislature and executive branch, they appropriate the necessary funding for a program. The best example of this tomfoolery is the budget for the Big Dig. Despite billions of dollars in cost overruns, legislators have managed to "find" the money to complete this project. The judiciary can even find money for 'clean elections.' Why can't they find the funds to keep their commitment to public education?

There is a bit of Eastern folk wisdom that says: "If you think of one year, plant rice; if you think of some years, plant trees; if you think of 100 years, invest in children and their education." We need to take a long-range perspective and continue to build on the strides we have already made in public higher education. Let's invest in our children and their education. Let's keep our commitment.

Mahesh Sharma is professor of education, provost, and executive vice president of Cambridge College, an independent college in Cambridge.

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