Monday, February 16, 2009

Education and Growth

A group of interested parties gathered at the state capitol today to advocate for school funding. I agree and I include higher education as well. The causal link between education and growth is well-established. This illustration from The New York Times sums it up:


The forcing of quick and drastic cuts is very costly and damaging - I think the rationale for using part of the reserve funds now to avoid these cuts is strong. Schools can make much more intelligent decisions in the next academic year about ways to cut that are the least costly to the students.

1 comment:

OregonGuy said...

There is an interesting example taking place right now at Oregon State. Due to the way the School of Forestry is funded, they're looking at some significant short-term downsizing.

Having lived through previous business cycles, I have no doubt that the funding levels will be restored...at some point. What would be nice is if the budgeting process were based on greater averaging of reciepts...