Sen. Jack Donahue wants a hard look at higher education

With all the carving knives poised above college campus budgets these days, Sen. Jack Donahue of Mandeville wants to take a hard look at higher education in Louisiana. The first-term legislator met yesterday with four of his Senate colleagues – Mike Michot of Lafayette, Ben Nevers of Bogalusa and Mike Walsworth of West Monroe – and Louisiana Higher Education Commissioner Sally Clausen to determine a plan of action. Donahue plans to introduce a resolution calling for an external expert to scrutinize the system and bring recommendations for possible closures, consolidations or alternative financing. “I would like to see us as a state of Louisiana have a plan as far as post-secondary education is concerned,” Donahue says. “We need to know what sized system the state can afford to have, and how we can fund that properly. There may not be enough money to fund the system we’d like to have if it’s funded properly.” Higher education as a whole is absorbing $218 million in budget cuts this year, $219 million next year, and possibly $400 million the year after that. Louisiana currently spends $1.3 billion on its 14 universities. “This just about cuts the education system in Louisiana in half, so it means we can afford about half of what we have,” Donahue says. “So if this means we can afford about half of what we have, the question is, ‘Is this what Louisiana wants?’ If the answer is, ‘Yes,’ then fine. If the answer is, ‘No,’ then we have to find money from other places.” Donahue himself thinks the state actually has too many four-year campuses and not enough two-year schools, and that “maybe there needs to be some reworking of the system. But I’m not an education expert; I’m a businessman. That’s why we need to bring in professionals.” – P.F.