College crunch

With the state facing a whopping $27 billion budget deficit, Texas legislators meeting for their biennial session in Austin are looking at having to do some heavy-handed ax wielding in an effort get the budget closer to an even keel.

We understand their predicament and realize that unless something is done, the deficit will continue to mount unchecked. However, mindless hacking should not be the order of the day. Instead, legislators are urged to give very careful thought to what must be cut, what should be cut, what can be cut and what they need to think two, three or more times about whether and how much to cut without doing more harm than good.

In other words, Texas legislators need to seriously consider their priorities when it comes to budget reductions.

When they campaign for office, virtually every legislator is quick to tell constituents that education is a main priority because deep down, they understand the immutable truth that education is the key to good jobs and good futures for all of their constituents.

However, that truth always seems to be one of the first they ignore when budget shaving time comes, turning the state’s public schools and universities into sacrificial targets.

That must not be allowed to happen in 2011. There is too much at stake, namely the future of Texas’ children and its workforce.

Just how the cuts will finally play out remains to be seen and there is hardly an education administrator in the state who isn’t more than just a little bit nervous and with good reason.

Among those who are suffering a case of the jitters are officials at the University of Texas Pan-American, who, as things look at the moment could be facing state funding cuts that could run up to the 20 percent range.

That sort of slash — which would be among the largest in the University of Texas system — would set the university budget back more five years to 2006 levels and do significant damage to most of the educational progress UTPA has made over the past decade.

In terms that anyone can understand, what are we talking about here? Well, according to reports prepared by university officials, we are right off the top looking at the elimination of something like 53 faculty positions and the elimination of more than 380 classes at a time when the student enrollment is pretty steadily growing. Also, badly needed campus construction and infrastructure improvements and services will also have to be curtailed.

Of course, as a side effect, some of that student population growth likely will be stemmed since, to make up for the funding shortfall, the university will be left with few options but to raise — make that, in all likelihood, substantially raise — student tuition and fees.

When you couple that with the fact that, as part of the budget whacking process, many of the state funding programs that provide scholarships or other forms of assistance to economically disadvantaged students are also facing huge cuts or possible elimination, the overall impact on UTPA and its student body could be devastating.

And, by proxy, what does harm to the university’s economy also threatens the Valley’s economy since, according to a recently completed study, the university now contributes nearly a half-billion dollars annually to the Valley’s economy.

But even more important than the impact the university has on the local economy is the impact it has on the lives of those who can take advantage of the educational opportunities UTPA offers — opportunities that have changed lives and have over the years lifted many thousands of Valley families out of poverty.

Yes, education is the key to good futures for all those who can take advantage of it and we call on every member of the Texas Legislature think about that before mindlessly putting the budgets of Texas institutions of higher learning on the chopping block.