Yet another state may be in the process of cutting funding to higher education. Wisconsin lawmakers are grappling with the idea of slashing upwards of $150 million from higher education this year.
According to insidehighered.com, the Wisconsin Legislature may put into a place a mandatory tuition freeze and “a 13 percent reduction in the higher education budget.”
The article continues by stating just how dire the situation may be for the University of Wisconsin system. With no tuition increases, little leftover revenue due to tax cuts, funding contractions that will total $300 million, the university’s chancellor said that there may be 430 layoffs.
“I particularly regret the impact these cuts will have on our employees and their families.”
Delving deeper into the problem that these cuts will have on jobs, insidehighered.com details that the University of Wisconsin system will offer “early retirement of more than 1,000 employees…and leave more than 90 vacant positions open.”
The state’s governor, Scott Walker, is likely to announce his candidacy for president sometime this summer, further fixating the national spotlight on Wisconsin.
Regarding Walker and the legislature’s decision to cut higher education funding so severely, this certainly performs an undue injustice to students attending schools within the University of Wisconsin system.
As mentioned earlier, the system hasn’t been allowed to approve tuition increases because that decision sits with state lawmakers. With employment reductions and cuts totaling $300 million, that will greatly reduce the quality of education that students will receive if these cuts are allowed to stand.
