UH deserves fair funding, in lump sum

The University of Hawaii should receive its state funding as a lump sum, as in the House’s budget plan, but the deep budget cuts proposed in tandem with this enhanced autonomy must not prevail in a state that depends on the 10-campus system to educate its populace.

The House Finance Committee sliced about $72 million from UH’s budget request for the upcoming fiscal year, paring the amount to $369 million. That’s less than the state provided in the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2014 — $391.3 million in operating funds were budgeted for that period — and far less than both university leaders and the governor’s office are seeking for UH next year. University officials sought $441 million and Gov. David Ige proposed $427.5 million in his executive budget.

House Finance Chairwoman Sylvia Luke is to be lauded for proposing what she acknowledged is a drastic change in the budget allocation process. In years past, the Legislature divided the university’s funding among the four-year campuses, the medical school, community colleges and systemwide support costs.

This overt decisionmaking by lawmakers deprived the educational institutions’ leaders of budgetary authority they are in a better position to exercise, knowing the university system’s programs, challenges and priorities as they do. Being able to exercise greater flexibility in fiscal matters across the entire UH system also would bring greater accountability to the administrators, faculty and staff operating within that system, which also would be an improvement.

This economic autonomy will only pay off, though, now and in the future, if it comes with state funding sufficient to provide high-quality educational opportunities on all islands, affordable to the lower-income Hawaii residents who comprise a large percentage of UH’s student population.

It is important to emphasize that the value of a college education benefits not only the student who earns the degree, but also the community in which that student lives. Educational attainment correlates not only to lifetime earnings, but also to a host of personal health and wellness factors that increase a city’s overall quality of life. So it is alarming to see a House budget proposal that reduces operating funds for UH, compared not only to UH’s wish list, but to what the state spent on higher education only a year ago.

It’s true that the UH’s budget proposal assumes no tuition increases, even though a 7 percent increase approved in 2011 is scheduled to take effect in the fall. UH officials have said a final decision on whether to raise tuition — or perhaps to lower it — won’t be made until after the Legislature finalizes the budget in May. UH should rescind the planned tuition increase, but cannot if lawmakers withhold necessary state funding.

Continuing strong support is essential to keep Hawaii’s public university system broadly accessible for state residents. While isle students generally have avoided the depths of indebtedness plaguing this generation of college students elsewhere in the country, they are not immune to it, and the problem is worsening. Forty-seven percent of 2013 graduates from Hawaii four-institutions carry student debt, on average $22,785, according to the Project on Student Debt, a national initiative. The annual state-by-state analysis found that both the percentage of Hawaii students taking out student loans and the amount of those loans is growing. We must reverse this negative trend.

Once the state budget bill ends up in conference committee, the House Finance and Senate Ways and Means panels will negotiate any differences. The conference committee should use the House’s lump-sum funding model, but not its meager funding amounts.

The total funding must recognize the critical and irreplaceable role Hawaii’s public university system plays in this remote island chain. Lawmakers should not erode financial support for higher education, but build upon it — upholding the bedrock belief that an affordable, high-quality college education remains the key to a better life.