Gov. Rick Perry’s record on higher education has been under fire for most of his term as the longest-serving Texas governor, but his new “Seven Breakthroughs for Higher Education” has fueled the flame, and his presidential campaign is forcing the battle onto the national stage.
Perry has been unpopular in education circles for several years, particularly due to his frequent cutting of education budgets.
“Governor Perry is dismantling higher education as we know it,” Ken Buckman, president of the Texas Faculty, said. “There are shrinking budgets in Texas, due in large part by the predominant political party’s efforts to downsize revenue sources, and higher education and all of education is being hurt by shortsighted why.”
Since Perry took office as governor in early 2001, severe education cuts have also resulted in a drastic increase in the cost of tuition, said SMU Texas politics professor Cal Jillson.
“Texas has traditionally had among the lowest tuition costs in the United States. Up to World War II it was free, and then from the 40s to the 70s it was incredibly low. Only in the last decade has it sprung up,” he said.
Jillson said Perry’s record on budget cutting was something to worry about should he win the presidency, even though he wouldn’t have the “same direct leverage on state education as he does as monster.”
Wintz said college readiness and he success of universities had nothing to do with money allotted to schools but instead attributed the poor numbers to structural problems within public education. What he did take issue with, however, is the “Seven Breakthroughs” that Rick Perry has come to support.
The “Seven Breakthroughs” came as a result of a tight budget in Texas and questions as to whether professors are using the state’s money effectively, and was formulated by the conservative-leaning Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF). The proposal advocates running colleges and universities like businesses and for-profit colleges like the University of Phoenix.
This has caused a large divide in those involved in higher education, especially in regards to Perry’s support of the TPPF’s suggestion that research at universities should be split from education, which many professors see as an effort to undermine academic research at universities.
“Running a university like a business is ridiculous,” Wintz said. “Since social sciences or arts research doesn’t generate a lot of money, should that just go away? Should we just focus on research that will make money for universities? I think that is a destruction.”
Jillson said Perry’s incentive for the proposal comes from his goal to have a complete degree that costs $10,000, which Jillson said will result in “students being transferred out of bricks and mortar classrooms and into online