Over the past decade, former LSU chancellor Mike Martin has had what he calls the honor—and occasionally the frustration—of working in higher education in two states, Louisiana and Colorado. He was surprised to find the two states face similar challenges, but require “very different responses,” he says in a guest column he penned for Business Report.
“Both states’ higher education systems are underfunded relative to national averages,” writes Martin, who served as LSU’s chancellor from 2008 to 2012 and is now chancellor emeritus of the Colorado State University System. “In part as a result of limited public support, both Colorado and Louisiana systems underperform relative to national averages.”
Colorado has one of the nation’s most diverse and robust economies, built on a well-educated workforce, Martin writes. But that workforce is dominated by people who were educated elsewhere and relocated to Colorado.
“The state will have to ‘grow its own’ by significantly improving its education system,” he says. “Failure to do so will result in declining workforce quality, the creation of a substantial permanent and largely minority underclass or both.”
Louisiana, among the nation’s poorest states, needs to build a more diverse, dynamic economy through a much improved workforce, which means high-quality college education options must be available, he says.
“So in many ways these two states share common higher education challenges,” Martin says. “The big difference between Louisiana and Colorado in advancing higher education comes down to this: Colorado has the means—but not the will—to get better. Louisiana hopefully has the will, but it does not have the means.”
In Colorado, leaders must make investing in education a top priority, Martin says. In Louisiana, those at the top have to find new ways to fund higher ed, which will take “creativity and resolve.” Savings are available, Martin notes, including consolidation of non-academic services and reforms in financial aid (think TOPS), tuition and fee policy.
“To succeed both states will require courageous forward thinking and relentless leadership from both the public and private sectors,” Martin says.
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