Gov. Bobby Jindal was sworn in to his second term as Governor this week, amidst a slew of budgetary concerns and a gutted higher education system. (Credit: Kendra R. Chamberlain)

Proponents of Gov. Jindal’s policy may have been glad to hear public education listed as a top priority as the Governor outline his policy agenda for his next term.

“While I believe we must provide every child with an equal opportunity to receive a quality education, I do not believe we can or should guarantee everyone an equal result,” Gov. Jindal said during his inauguration speech.

The statement was an almost ironic summation of the past year in higher education. With millions worth of state funding cut from college and universities across the state, the Governor has left a legacy – at least according to his critics – of destruction of the esteemed equal opportunity higher education system and flagship university.

“For Jindal, an Ivy-Leaguer and Rhodes Scholar, cutting hundreds of millions of dollars from higher education is the fiscal equivalent of killing one’s family,” wrote columnist and political analyst Clancy DuBos, drawing a (albeit bizarre) parallel between the slasher movie Halloween and Jindal’s record of hacking away at higher education budgets.

DuBos isn’t the only one worried. Last week, famed democrat strategist James Carville, with Henson Moore (a former Republican congressman and chairman of the Forever LSU campaign), wrote an opinion piece that appeared in the Jan. 8 edition of the Times-Picayune.

“[O]ur flagship university is at a tipping point,” the editorial stated. “The problem pivots on finances and governance structure.”

With another term on the horizon, and a recently published list of recommendations offered by a commission, Gov. Jindal has another chance to fix some of the state’s higher education problems, if he doesn’t ignore them.

The students v. Bobby Jindal

“On behalf of the students whose hopes for a brighter future will soon be crushed, I beg you to return to Louisiana and fix your state’s serious problems.” That’s what former student government president J Ryan Hudson famously wrote back in 2010 in an open letter to Gov. Jindal that appeared in a New Hampshire daily where Jindal was scheduled to speak that day. Hudson, who felt he was speaking on behalf of the student body that elected him, was obviously frustrated with the Governor’s handling of the higher education budgets.

The tense relationship between a concerned student body and the Governor’s administration hasn’t eased any since then.

Colleges and Universities around the state were dealt a swift slap across the face when Gov. Bobby Jindal announced an additional $50 million would need to be cut from the state’s higher education budget. After the Revenue Estimating Committee revised the state’s revenue forecast for fiscal year 2011-12, Gov. Jindal was presented with an additional $198 million worth of immediate cuts needed to balance the budget.

The governor’s legislative plan for the tough budget year in 2011 looked very nice on paper – he assured students and faculty alike that the state funding for higher education would not be reduced by more than 10 percent. But when the slicing began, it hurt a lot. Programs have been scrapped, majors have merged, scholarships reduced.

Higher education has suffered $360 million in reductions in the past three years – accounting for about a quarter of the state funds post-secondary institutions collect from the state.

The education institutions have implemented a variety of new and creative methods to help cope with the funding losses. The Baton Rouge Community College, for example, has reduced class offerings in order to deter students from enrolling; others have instituted hiring freezes and lay-offs. Amid the cuts, the LSU AgCenter threatened to declare financial exigency last year.

“We’ve looked at this every which way we can...We just can’t continue to operate in this fashion and maintain quality,” Chancellor Bill Richardson told the Board of Regents last year, according to The Advocate.

On the other hand, after a heated, and very public, debate among faculty members, Southern University did declare exigency in October of 2011.

“I think it’s something that in the end we realize that was necessary for us to move forward, to develop this institution into a model 21st century institution,” Southern Chancellor James Llorens said in an interview with The Southern Digest. “It affords us the opportunity to restructure our academic programs, restructure our administrative operations and create a university here at Southern that will be able to respond to the changing financial conditions of the state.”

Llorens point is well taken. If there’s one thing higher education institutions can rely on, it’s that their budgets will be the first to be cut.

Commissioned opinions

Gov. Jindal’s legislative agenda last year focused a lot on higher education. He unveiled an ambitious plan to update tuition, revamp the La Grad act, set higher standards for the colleges and universities across the state, and create a single governing board for higher education. While the La Grad Act 2.0, as it was dubbed, stands by far as the biggest success on that agenda list, Jindal fell short of the other goals, derailed by budget concerns, and the Southern University at New Orleans/ University of New Orleans merger debate – a debate that he lost.

The governance commission was created during the legislative session last summer, when the legislation failed to reach a compromise under the threat of a veto to reform the governance structure of higher education.

The 18-member group was tasked with studying a number of issues, including tuition, TOPS, funding formulas, and articulation.

“Obviously [governance] was the driving force behind it,” said Barry Erwin, who is the president of the non-profit Council for A Better Louisiana, and was appointed to the commission by the Board of Regents.

“It’s been an issue for two decades, if you really want to go back that far.”

The commission released its 21 recommendations last week. Many, including Jindal, might find the recommendations regarding governance to be disappointing – namely that restructuring the boards was found by the commission to not be the most prudent exercise right now.

“The commission came to the conclusion fairly early in the process that going through a major restructuring right now would be a difficult thing to do at best,” Erwin said. “But we can’t do nothing.”

Instead, the commission noted that “the status quo is unacceptable,” and went on to recommend redefining the authoritative roles of both the Board of Regents and the four managing boards beneath it.

“The Regents have certain responsibilities, but they don’t have the authority to with it. So what you have are legislators that have been very frustrated in recent years, Erwin said. “Who is accountable in higher education? Who do we hold responsible?”

It’s unclear whether Jindal, or the Legislature, will move forward during the next session to remedy this issue, but if Jindal continues to threaten any progress with vetoes, movement seems unlikely.

TOPS, recapped?

The commission took a decidedly anti-Jindal turn when they recommended decoupling the Taylor Opportunity Program for Students from tuition. The media reported, and Jindal responded, as though the recommendation was to cap TOPS.

“It didn’t exactly say capped,” Erwin explained. “...[A]s tuition goes up, that increases the cost of TOPS – because TOPS covers tuition at 100 percent. So what we’re saying is, let’s just separate the two.”

Typically, students haven’t been too keen on the idea of capping or reducing TOPS.

“I don’t like it,” wrote John Parker Ford, current chief of staff for student government president Cody Wells. “I believe TOPS exists to keep talented students in the state. If I meet the requirements for TOPS and the requirements to get into LSU, the state should see that as an opportunity to keep a bright student in the state.”

Oddly, the notion of restructuring TOPS hasn’t been a popular one, even though many students point to that as a great starting point to help alleviate some of the financial burden the state takes on through the program.

“I do believe TOPS should be repaid progressively if a student drops out or fails,” Ford said. “This incentivizes staying in school and not jumping in because it’s free.”

It’s well known that a lot of money is “lost” on TOPS-eligible students that either drop out or fail out, a systemic problem that wasn’t well addressed by either Jindal’s agenda, the legislation last year, or the commission this year.

“TOPS is a very good program, it has a lot of support, and has done a lot of good things, Erwin said. “However, it’s also very expensive and costly to the state.”

The recommendations, however well-researched and thoughtful, must be approved by the legislature before being instituted, a fact that Erwin said members kept in mind.

“It’s a balancing act,” Erwin said. We wanted to make the best recommendations that we could in a realistic world.”

As to whether the recommendations will have any impact on Jindal’s next legislative agenda, no one seems particularly optimistic.

“I would say this about higher education in Louisiana,” Ford said, “nothing will be fixed until people let go of their pride.”