HIGHER ED MATH

In his first round of budget cutting, Gov. John Baldacci did not reduce funding for the state’s higher education systems and asked them to look for cost savings. In his second round of cuts, announced last week, the governor proposed to reduce funding for the University of Maine System, the Maine Community College System and Maine Maritime Academy by more than $9 million, with the largest share from the university system. This should redouble campus efforts to reduce costs, not merely pass along the increase in the form of higher tuition.

Like other states, Maine has chronically underfunded higher education. But, given the state’s continuing financial woes, Maine’s shortchanging of higher education is not going to end. Campuses must find new ways to reduce costs and raise revenue so that a college education remains affordable for Maine families.

Lawmakers, too, must understand that their refusal to consider new, more efficient, campus affiliations (they not only rejected the merger of administration at several University of Maine System campuses, they also required legislative approval for any changes) and other cost-saving measures is also to blame.

To close a nearly $200 million budget gap, Gov. Baldacci proposed to cut more than $7 million from the University of Maine System. The result, system officials warned, would be to raise tuition by 14 percent or eliminate up to 250 positions.

State funding now makes up less than half of the system’s revenues, with the largest share coming from tuition and fees. Continually asking families to pay more is not sustainable as the state encourages (and needs) more of its young people to graduate from college.

Chancellor Richard Pattenaude has launched an efficiency initiative to cut $5 million from the system’s more than $600 million budget in coming years, with most of the money coming from the system office. The system’s seven campuses have also been asked to look for savings, but that effort will now shift to cutting expenses to balance the budget, not to achieve efficiencies. The danger in this approach is that there is a tendency to look for one-time cuts to solve an immediate problem rather than reducing expenses going forward and using those savings for other purposes, such as increasing financial aid or improving instruction.

Looking for efficiencies and reallocating that money to where it will have a larger impact is especially necessary now.

At their meeting Monday, UMS trustees warned that the cuts proposed by the governor would be counterproductive to the state’s economic interests. “The state cannot afford to undermine the universities’ ability to create jobs, products and technologies, and more through research and development,” said Margaret Weston, chairwoman of the system’s board of trustees. “Maine cannot dilute the ability of its universities to serve as partners and resources in improving our state and its quality of life.”

Neither, however, can the university system dilute that work through duplication and inefficiency. It can assure it does not by first reviewing campus expenditures and comparing them with national norms and campus missions.

Gov. Baldacci has made government efficiency his top priority. Asking the state’s higher education systems to do the same is a reasonable extension of this effort.