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Recently, our President made another effort towards sprucing up our higher education system by calling on governors to invest more in this field, including in public higher education. At the White House, he spoke to the governors and said that in no time we will be out-competed by countries that are out-educating us now.

He pointed out that tough choices are now inevitable in the federal and state budgets. Back in 2008, when our financial system almost crashed, President Bush and the Congress made a unilateral decision to infuse money into the “too big to fail” financial institutions in our country.

Exactly a similar situation is faced today by our vast public higher education institution network. Every single educational institute in our country is facing a tough time, relentlessly targeted by slashed budgets. Our public education cannot fail at any cost as it is too large for that. The sooner our leaders recognize this fact, the better.

At least 15 million students are enrolled in our country’s public, post graduate, four-year and two-year universities and colleges. Sixty percent of research funded federally is conducted by these institutions which also award sixty percent of Ph.D.s and educate seventy percent American students.

Half of the college students in our country are enrolled at the large public research universities numbering 200. This is a remarkable higher education system that is being put at great risk. Experts opine that world class quality of our leading state universities are eroded and crippled by the 20 to 30 percent state budget cuts.

Higher education budgets were reduced by 40 states last year. As compared to a decade earlier, only one fifth the amount is being spent today on a public college student by the state. A student at the University of California receives only $9000 as state funding as compared to ten years back when the amount was $18,000.

Our country was ranked top among nations worldwide in college attainment levels among 25 to 34 year olds in the mid seventies. Recent data shows that among 36 developed nations, we are now ranked 16th. We are way behind countries such as Japan, Canada, South Korea, Norway, Russia, Sweden, New Zealand, United Kingdom, France and Australia.

A challenge was issued by the former Harvard University president Derek Bok. He said that those who thought education was expensive should try out ignorance. He said that neglecting education based on affordability was a foolish thing to do. This was a penny-wise-pound-foolish, misguided approach that was disastrous. In the 21st century global economy, we will be able to compete effectively only with the backing of a highly educated workforce.

What we need now is an energetic, strong and result oriented plan that will help our public higher education survive. An efficient emergency plan is desperately needed to revitalize the system.
In the past we have seen our country fight back and surface from dire consequences. We have always made the right, timely choices. We must definitely do it again to bring our higher education system back on track.