With Scott Walker entertaining a run for president in 2016, you can expect MSNBC to amp up their criticism of the Wisconsin governor. Enter msnbc.com homepage editor and University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire alumnus David Taintor today hitting Walker for proposing a "huge cut" in taxpayer financing of the University of Wisconsin system:
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a potential 2016 GOP contender who never earned a college degree, has proposed a huge cut in funding for the University of Wisconsin system over the next two years.
Walker’s office pitched the plan, which is part of the governor’s budget proposal, boasting it would give the university system more discretion over its finances. But it also carries a $300 million cut and a tuition freeze for the UW system over two years. That amounts to a 13% decrease of state funding for the university system, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Campus leaders are calling the proposed cut the largest in the university system’s history.
While Taintor's story was relatively balanced and lacking in overheated rhetoric, he failed to inform readers that taxpayer funding for the Badger State's public universities and colleges amounts to a mere 19% of funding, as the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel noted in their reported on Walker's plan, which would grant greater financial and managerial authority to the state's public colleges and universities:
State tax money makes up about 19% of the UW System's budget, according to the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau. Tuition, federal aid, grants, donations and other payments bring the system's total annual funding to more than $6 billion.
After 2017, the Board of Regents would have the authority to set whatever tuition it saw fit for UW System schools. However, between now and then lawmakers would be free to pass legislation that would extend the tuition freeze or limit the size of increases.
A $150-million cut in one year's time then would represent a roughly 2.5-percent trim in revenue for a system operating on $6 billion/year. It is real money, but it is by no means a "huge" cut. What's more, the promise of greater autonomy could be an enticement for major corporations and wealthy donors to invest more in the university system, knowing red tape imposed by regulators in Madison will be significantly cut by the Walker plan. It's certainly plausible that a sizable portion, if not the entire $150-million/year deficit could be made up by increased donations from non-governmental sources enticed by Walker's reform plan.
