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The latest from the battle over high ed in Wisconsin. Comments open for those who know more about what's going on, other links, etc.
I think that the title of this post is not quite accurate (thanks, though, for your attention to this situation!).
Legislators (purportedly) want to reduce the amount of cuts from $300 million, but that is contingent on the state fiscal situation. Specifically, it depends on (1) the amount by with the state Legislative Fiscal Bureau adjusts its revenue estimates, and (2) the relative priority of state K-12 funding restoration. According to the UW chancellor, if the revenue estimates increase by a little, it is likely that the legislature will restore money to K-12 only (or mostly). Higher estimates make it more likely that UW will get cut less.
Two things to note. One is that the legislators may just be hand-wringing for public consumption ("oh, we want _so badly_ not to make these cuts!"), when in fact they are pretty happy to do it. Absent some money on the table, I'm skeptical.
Second is that the current bill still cuts tenure and shared governance from state statute. Hence, it now looks like we could get (and are LIKELY to get) the budget cuts, not get public authority, and removal of tenure and shared governance from statutory protection. That would leave it to the board of regents to make rules about tenure and shared governance. The chancellor actually seems to support this, given that the regents understand the importance of these for any serious higher education system in the U.S. I think that's probably right–the regents don't want to actively participate in gutting UW. But from where I sit, the removal of statutory protection makes more palpable the hostility to UW, higher education, and research from the state legislature.
Oh, and faculty losses are mounting. Lots of people leaving. Many are doing so for reasons unrelated to the state budget situation. However, there's a two-year moratorium on new hires, so the ones leaving (for whatever reason) won't be replaced.
In the news today (5/6) the LFB (presumably a nonpartisan group) has declared that tax revenues will not rise. The odds of UW receiving the full cut just went up considerably.
I'm so angry about all this that I simply cannot comment civilly and rationally, so I guess I'll serve my ALEC overlords by shutting up–for now.
Re: 2. Here's a relevant link: http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/no-hike-in-revenue-estimates-forces-tough-budget-decisions-b99495357z1-302763911.html
Not clear why the headline is "no hike in revenue forces tough budget decisions," rather than "massive tax cuts for wealthy people and corporations, tax subsidies for NBA arena, and refusal of federal Medicaid funding forces bad budget decisions."
And, yeah, V. Alan White is correct. The probability of getting the full cut increased yesterday. This is really disheartening, as a number of people who I consider both knowledgeable and cautious had expressed belief that the revenue estimates would increase. With no increase, both k-12 and uw system are facing the entire proposed cuts.
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