Higher Ed Funding Critical For Florida's Future

Florida lawmakers have an amazingly difficult task before them as they go to work in 2009. They must find drastic cuts to balance the state budget, or find revenue elsewhere. Most importantly, they must keep vital services while finding ways to cut the budget. One of the most important areas they have to trim involves our institutions of higher education, and so far they aren't doing so well.

According to a Palm Beach Post story, top researchers at our universities are pulling out and moving due to Florida's budget crisis. This means hundreds of millions of dollars in research grants, and all the revenue that such research brings to the state, are lost. Along with that lost money, we lose our best and brightest students to other universities where the best professors move to and take their grant money.

For example, a Florida State University researcher needed five faculty members to start a landmark center to study autism, according to Kimberly Miller's story in the Post. But due to state cuts, those faculty members couldn't be hired and the researcher pulled out and moved out of state. Those graduate research positions help the economy, not to mention what a big center on autism would have brought to our state. Factor in the top Florida students who would have benefited from having such a center, and now will likely move out of state for those opportunities, and we have a problem.

A vibrant, successful university system is critical for any state to have success in luring high-paying jobs, industries and reaping the benefits. It boosts the economy, and keeps our best students at home.

Short-term budget fixes riding on the back of such cuts do more harm than most people realize. That harm is long-term, and possibly never replaced. It's impossible to put a value on what is lost.

It's easy to understand that lawmakers are in a no-win position when it comes to balancing the state budget. We have so many needs and nowhere near enough money. Raising taxes isn't a consideration, so obviously cuts will have to be made. Anywhere they cut, good arguments can be made as to why they will be devastating. But there are just some places that hurt so much more, and university funding is one of those - especially these days.

Let's hope our lawmakers have the wisdom to make good decisions for Florida's future. A quick fix in 2009 could have negative consequences for decades to come.