Budgetary Driven Brain Drain

Iowa does not have a tremendous amount going for it in terms of natural endowments. We don't have booming natural resources, cultural and economic meccas, or universally desirable recreation areas. What we do have is an abundance of space, feed corn, and lots of nice perfectly linear roadways due to our farming heritage. We also have a lot of great educational institutions and a number of families with young future taxpayers that should be future resources. Perhaps unfortunately, many of our brightest leave the state for greener pastures and we bemoan that and refer to it by the ominous euphemism of "Brain Drain". Brain Drain triggers thoughts of aliens sucking our intelligence out with needle like instruments of torture but the truth is that a lot of that sucking is coming from the aliens we call Legislator, Regent, and Governor.

It is fashionable, and expected, for good Iowans to bemoan the loss of our youngsters and longingly recall the glory days of Iowa. In an effort to combat this, we throw tax money into tax credits meant to encourage job growth and creation to keep our youngsters here that not only does not create jobs for young people but more importantly drains the resources we have to benefit those young brains. We subsidize wine production, movie production, and numerous other activities in which Iowa does not and will not ever have a competitive advantage. We try and control the economy and control the market system that tells us where certain businesses should locate. This arrogant ignorance and the culmination of idiotic decisions and spending by our Legislature have meant that our state universities are taking unprecedented cuts in funding from the great state of Iowa.

Today we were told that on top of the approximately 12.5 percent decline for this fiscal year we should prepare for an additional permanent 20 percent reduction for next fiscal year. This will result in a little under 1/3 of the university budget from state funded resources to disappear in a two year period and with tremendous implications.

In an effort to deal with the decline in revenue, the Board of Regents has proposed a 6% increase in tuition next year despite the fact that enrollment projections were already lower. Do they not have an economist to explain elasticity to them? Most likely an increase of that magnitude, in addition to the recent increases and decline in services, will actually reduce overall revenue from tuition. The majority of our students are native to the state and their parents are struggling with the same economic conditions creating hardship at the university and then some. They are facing lack of credit and financial aid to pay for college education and are probably finding it difficult to keep the kids they have in our universities, let alone pay more to enroll new ones.

If the idea was to drive students to community colleges then I would say its pure genius because that will be an unintended consequence. If the idea is to drive college students to other states for education then once again, genius. If the idea is to drive our youngsters out of the state to get jobs instead of staying here to get educations, you got it, genius.

Let it be known, I am a proud employee of Iowa State University. I never attended a public university for my undergraduate or graduate work for the very reasons that are going to be exacerbated by these budget cuts. I had no desire for huge class sizes, classes taught by teaching assistants, and a very impersonal relationship with my educators and because I valued those things I missed out on some of the amazing research and talent that are housed at public universities. Due to budget cuts, more students are going to miss out on that opportunity and there will be less capacity to deliver high quality research and meaningful outcomes.

I cannot argue that all college education is valuable in monetary terms. If I'm honest I think there are a number of majors and disciplines that not only don't increase people's lifetime earning expectancies but might actually reduce them. Sometimes community college is the better option, I get that. Sometimes people over invest in education, I am about to become the Wikipedia entry for this phenomenon. BUT, Education has economic value beyond its value to the student's lifetime earnings. Education has a public welfare benefit that cannot be measured.

I also cannot argue that perhaps if the education and research we produce at state universities is valuable that markets won't intervene, they already do in areas that the economy dictates as valuable. A number of us at the University bring in private sector dollars to fund our research and salaries. The more we are encouraged to do this the closer we are to moving toward a private university system.

What I can argue is that Iowa's university system is one of the greatest things about this state. We should be grateful to have young minds in this state for however long we can get them, particularly since we don't have very many cool jobs to offer them once they graduate. The bottom line is if you value the public university system, you cannot justify another huge tuition increase and massive cuts to our Regent's Institutions. I can honestly say I would rather lose my job than see another tuition increase on students that will not solve the problem. Particularly when the economics of a college education are getting decidedly more negative with the lack of employment opportunities and the increasing costs.

It's time to decide Iowans. Do we want the private sector to take care of education? Perhaps. If not, it is time to demand that the state is accountable for the pillaging of taxpayers when it comes to our schools. We have great brains, great schools, and great opportunities in the area of education. Unfortunately, we have myopic and idiotic legislators and decision makers to muck that up.