It seems that nobody in state government, even public higher education leaders, gets it. The state must not foist its budget problems onto the backs of local property taxpayers.
The UW Board of Regents and the Wisconsin Technical College System board recently received a report from a joint committee on ways to increase the number of Wisconsin residents with bachelor's degrees. The committee tried to find ways to produce more baccalaureate degree holders as a strategy to keep our workforce competitive in the 21st century economy.
The report recommends offering baccalaureate degrees to students at WTCS and UW two-year college campuses that are unable to attend a four-year institution. All of these campuses are supported by local property taxes. However, it is not acceptable to shift some of the cost for producing a new baccalaureate to property taxpayers.
The report also recommends an incremental but fundamental change in our higher educational systems in Wisconsin. Over the years, the educational missions of our systems have become blurred. We have four-year schools offering classes in catering and technical colleges offering liberal arts courses. This duplication creates unnecessary costs and taxpayers and students get stuck with the bills.
Furthermore, technical colleges and two-year colleges were never intended to offer bachelor's degrees. Their original missions of access and job training remain valid today.
Having technical colleges and the two-year colleges offer the four-year degrees results in property taxpayers picking up costs for baccalaureate education in Wisconsin. The state has so badly mismanaged itself that it can't afford to offer more degree completion programs at the 13 four-year campuses.
One of the reasons we have a property-tax crisis in this state is because for too long we have dumped so much onto the tax that is not related to property. This proposal further exacerbates this problem.
Finally, if the two-year colleges offer four-year degree programs, this makes them in many ways equivalent to the four-year campuses. Will property taxpayers in counties with four-year schools start to subsidize baccalaureate programs at those campuses too?
Of course they won't. But that creates an inequity statewide-some county property taxes support baccalaureate education and some don't.
Higher education is vital to Wisconsin's future. If the state thinks producing more baccalaureate degree holders is necessary, then the state needs to step up and do it with state dollars at the four-year campuses.
One solution is to merge the UW and WTC systems. UW System President Kevin Reilly said in a press release, \While Wisconsin has the expertise and drive to supply the graduates who can help grow the state's economy, this effort will only succeed as a partnership with state and local government, business and industry, labor and other sectors.""
