GUTHRIE —
There were some positive outcomes from this year’s legislative session. This includes the scheduled closure of two high profile state government corporate welfare funds. Closing these funds removes state government from meddling in the free market where it all too often creates unintended negative consequences.
One of these funds (known as EDGE) will be liquidated, with much of the assets ($150 million) going toward higher education endowment funds. These funds are to match private donations to the endowments. I am a proponent of moving higher education entities away from the appropriated funds model and toward a financing mechanism by which earnings from endowments are used to keep tuition from increasing. I am opposed to efforts to direct endowment earnings into areas not resulting in stabilized tuition costs.
Unfortunately, I believe all too often these funds are spent on empire building or are wasted by not driving down the cost of education. One of the first reforms to take place within higher ed should be the channeling of endowment earnings directly to cutting tuition costs whenever possible. The regents should use the EDGE money for endowments funds dedicated to lowering tuition.
The state auditor and inspector must be given the power to conduct performance audits of higher education institutions. In last week’s column, I detailed the enormous expansion in higher ed spending and indebtedness during the past 10 years. Higher education spending has grown from $2.2 billion to almost $4.1 billion. Had the expansion stayed at the rate of inflation, it would be at $2.85 billion. In response to that article, someone posted on my Facebook page questioning why those funds were not audited. Oklahoma’s performance audit laws are not conducive to frequent audits and I suspect it has been many years since there was a comprehensive performance audit of the higher education system by the state auditor, if ever.
Many of our government modernization initiatives have been based on performance-type audits. These audits almost always expose major inefficiencies and I am confident that if given the opportunity, the state auditor would provide us a report with a detailed road map to eliminate inefficiencies within the higher ed system. Without this important tool it is hard for legislators to know which savings initiatives to apply first.
I suspect one of the first recommendations would be to consolidate overhead and administration. I have heard too much anecdotal testimony from those who work at the institutions regarding the massive expansion of administrative overhead and high-paying positions within the system. We know that Oklahoma has nearly 30 higher education institutions across the state, and consolidating the administrative services of many of these institutions into a shared administration service should be a priority. Just as state agencies are set to save millions from consolidating, so should higher ed.
I also believe the report would show that many of the institutions are offering duplicative programs. These programs should take advantage of technology and distance learning to be combined across the entire state system.
Higher ed’s powerful lobbying team has been responsible for winning exemptions from government modernization reforms. If these reforms are good enough for state agencies, they should certainly apply to higher ed as well. This is especially true of the IT consolidation effort, which already accounts for a projected $30 million of savings to state agencies. Higher ed has aggressively resisted participation in this reform. I believe there are many other opportunities for participation in shared services with state agencies and other higher ed institutions.
Technology should have bent the cost curve of getting a degree just like it has driven down the cost of so many other aspects of life. However, at a time when the application of new technologies have allowed many organizations to reduce the number of FTEs, higher ed has continued to expand. Higher ed can’t hold out forever. Eventually, technology will drive down the cost curve just like it has in so many other areas of life.
Next week I will write about the future of higher education and describe how technology will break the status quo, pop the massively inflated higher education bubble and eventually collapse the cost of getting a degree.
REP. JASON MURPHEY, R-Guthrie, represents House District 31, which encompasses all of Logan County and a portion of northern Edmond. He may be reached via email at jason.murphey@okhouse.gov, on Facebook at facebook.com/JasonMurphey and Twitter.com/JWMurphey.
Opinion
Suggestions for lowering tuition costs
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Oklahomans unite in tragedy; set example for country
Whenever we witness the type of devastation wrought by this week’s killer tornado, we naturally struggle with a host of emotions. Those of us in the neighborhood battle to control our anxieties as we gather the information we can about the storm’s strength, location and direction. We experience dismay when we hear the threat above us has touched down and become a real physical menace to our friends, neighbors and loved ones. When the “all clear” sounds, we are thankful that the nightmare is over. When we realize our loved ones are all safe and sound, we rejoice.
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Spirit of Oklahoma strong in tornadoes
Because we’ve been through so much, we are a people who get perturbed when those on our nation’s coasts look down their noses at us. We are a people who get irritated when others tell us how we should live, or what we should believe. We are a people who cringe when others see our waving wheat fields as only flyover country.
We know that we are not perfect, but we are good, we are compassionate and we are giving. It is this spirit which led the teachers at Briarwood and Plaza Towers Elementary this week to use their bodies to shield students from tornado debris. It was this spirit that enabled law enforcement officers to stand in the way of the oncoming tornado to divert traffic from the storm’s path. It was this spirit that compelled Oklahomans around the globe to rush to the aid of their friends and neighbors. -
Let kids start school on a normal schedule
Q: Our son’s fifth birthday is in August. He did just fine, socially and academically, in preschool, but the counselor at the school he’s slated to attend has recommended that we hold him back a year because of his late birthday. She says that kids with late birthdays, especially boys, do better if they’re given an extra year of maturation before starting school. What do you think?
A: The practice of postponing Kindergarten for so-called “late birthday” children — generally defined as children having birthdays after May — got its start about 20 years ago and has generated the usual unintended consequences. Prime among those is the fact that by delaying the start of school for children having birthdays after May, schools only create a new crop of children with late birthdays — those occurring after January.
It’s true that during early elementary school, boys are less mature in several respects than girls. In general, their attention spans tend to be shorter. Therefore, they’re more impulsive and more easily distracted. It’s also true, however, that some children, boys as well as girls, experience developmental “spurts” during Kindergarten. The slightly immature, impulsive 5-year-old may be at the norm one year later. -
No one realizes how tough Okies really are — until this happens
Like many of you, I’m ending this tragic week emotionally drained. I was either glued to the weather report throughout the first part of the week or — when Su-the-dog and I weren’t settled down inside the storm shelter waiting for the all-clear to sound — I hovered with her about the shelter door leading down to it. Now as the week ends, I just might have changed my mind about a couple of things.
Many of us have been on our knees throughout this week praying that God will strengthen and comfort the state’s numerous tornado victims and their loved ones. Some have already contributed to organizations such as the Red Cross or the Salvation Army to aid this week’s victims of various tornadoes, and those who are able have either donated blood or else they will when the Bloodmobile makes its rounds. -
Seeing yourself as the world sees you
Ever try seeing yourself as others see you, or your piece of the world as others see your piece of the world?
You know, if you could get others to see you, or if you could get other parts of the world to see your part of it?
Narcissism and inferiority, both, can trap us in front of a mirror, admiring or lamenting, pleased or not pleased by the vision we presumably offer others.
Yet, what’s happened over the last three days, since yet another deadly tornado rolled through Moore, offers an entirely different perspective.
Through strength or weakness, we may take an interest in how we project. But when the “Today Show” is broadcast from the rubble and the network evening news has placed its anchor amidst the carnage; and when the news channels descend upon the destruction and every newspaper in the country is playing your and your neighbors’ plight bigger than its own hometown news, it turns surreal. -
ROCK DOC: Japanese find a new source of natural gas
The name “natural gas” might be a puzzle. After all, how could there be such a thing as unnatural gas? The reason we call natural gas what we do has to do with history. There was a day that people made burnable gas by heating coal. The gases that came off the coal were piped around cities where they did things like light street lamps and even power cook stoves in homes.
Coal gas had its down side. For one thing, it often contained carbon monoxide. And it took energy to make the gas, so it never could be truly cheap. -
Witnesses missing; Behenna case could be heard at Supreme Court
The film “Breaker Morant” was nominated for an Oscar for the best screenplay in 1980. It told the story of Harry “Breaker” Morant, an Australian who served in the British Army and was court-martialed for alleged war crimes during the Boer War in Southern Africa in the early years of the last century.
That conflict pitted the British Army against the descendants of the Dutch settlers who had migrated to what is now South Africa in the 17th and 18th centuries. The majority of them were farmers and in their language of Afrikaans were known as “Boers.” -
Don’t leave Oklahoma!
May is graduation season. As I have done every year as lieutenant governor, I have given multiple commencement speeches. Advice flows freely during this time and it usually runs the gamut. What to do, what not to do, how to do ‘x’, be sure not to do ‘y.’ Too often commencement speakers speak in big generalities. So general, the message is frequently lost or forgotten.
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Last-minute funding proposals not in state’s best interest
All indications point to this being the last week of this year’s legislative session. The Legislature will go home a week early. This is good news for Oklahomans as not only will there be cost savings but all Oklahomans should breathe a sigh of relief when the Legislature stops making new laws a week ahead of schedule.
As usual, the Legislature will take a number of important votes during the last week. Some will be forced due to attempts to introduce and pass far-reaching, new policies that should have been introduced much earlier in the year. -
BY THE NUMBERS: Oklahoma still needs to invest in its economy
After six months of stagnation, the Oklahoma economy finally appears to be expanding again albeit still weakly. Unfortunately, our leaders aren’t making the investments we need to give our economic prospects a boost.
Last week the Oklahoma Office of Management and Enterprise Services reported that in April state General Revenue fund collections were 5.2 percent above the estimate and 14.7 percent higher than last year’s collections. Under normal circumstances, such a report would indicate that the Oklahoma economy was very strong. But this isn’t a normal circumstance, and April isn’t a normal month. - More Opinion Headlines
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Oklahomans unite in tragedy; set example for country
