First installment.Byline: The Register-Guard The Legislature's Joint Ways and Means WAYS AND MEANS. In legislative assemblies there is usually appointed a committee whose duties are to inquire into, and propose to the house, the ways and means to be adopted to raise funds for the use of the government. This body is called the committee of ways and means. Committee unanimously approved a budget for higher education higher education Study beyond the level of secondary education. Institutions of higher education include not only colleges and universities but also professional schools in such fields as law, theology, medicine, business, music, and art. Friday, a vote that all but ensures an 18 percent increase in state spending for Oregon universities. An 18 percent increase would be a big step up, were it not for the fact that the Oregon University System The Oregon University System (OUS) consists of seven public, four-year universities in the State of Oregon administered by the Chancellor of the OUS, who serves at the will and pleasure of the Oregon State Board of Higher Education. is starting from the bottom of a deep hole. Friday's vote will be worth celebrating only if it proves to be the first in a series of similar increases stretching over a decade or more. The budget provides $868 million for higher education in 2007-09, up from $737 million in the current two-year budget period. That's a healthy increase, but it starts from an alarmingly low base. Current state funding for Oregon's universities is less than the amount approved in 1999-2001. An 18 percent bump over a two-year period is impressive. But the same numbers translate to a 15 percent increase over the course of five biennia bi·en·ni·a n. A plural of biennium. , revealing the true extent of Oregon's disinvestment Disinvestment 1. The action of an organization or government selling or liquidating an asset or subsidiary. Also known as "divestiture". 2. A reduction in capital expenditure, or the decision of a company not to replenish depleted capital goods. Notes: 1. in higher education. Oregon currently ranks 45th in the nation in the amount of state spending per university student. Higher education's share of the state budget is half what it was a generation ago. Tuition and fees have climbed dramatically to make up for declining state support, pricing a college education out of many Oregonians' reach and causing students to graduate with debt loads averaging close to $20,000. Faculty salaries lag far behind those at competing institutions, while classrooms, laboratories and offices need more than half a billion dollars' worth of maintenance and repairs. The budget approved Friday will only begin to reverse the damage. And there are disturbing reasons to doubt lawmakers' willingness to make a long-term commitment to higher education. The budget approved Friday was formulated for·mu·late tr.v. for·mu·lat·ed, for·mu·lat·ing, for·mu·lates 1. a. To state as or reduce to a formula. b. To express in systematic terms or concepts. c. only after the May forecast showed that Oregon would have $150 million in unanticipated revenue over the next two years. Before then, a Ways and Means subcommittee sub·com·mit·tee n. A subordinate committee composed of members appointed from a main committee. subcommittee Noun had recommended a markedly smaller increase. The implication is that the OUS OUS Outside the United States OUS OneUp Studios OUS Own Unit Support OUS Operation United Shield OUS Ourinhos, Sao Paulo, Brazil (Airport Code) OUS Oracle Universal Server OUS Organizational Units can expect increases of the size it needs only when the state is flush To empty the contents of a memory buffer. See buffer. Flush Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s spaniel, subject of a biography. [Br. Lit.: Woolf Flush in Barnhart, 446] See : Dogs (data) flush with cash. Yet investments in higher education, including community colleges, must continue in good times and bad - indeed, such investments gain importance when the economy sours. Cutting back on funding for universities during a recession is like stepping on a hospital patient's oxygen hose - it helps ensure that the recovery will be weaker, and the next downturn will be deeper. An 18 percent increase is a good start, but that's all it is. The real test will come two years, four years and six years from now, when the Legislature will need to find ways to support further increases of a similar magnitude. The state's economic skies might not be so sunny then - but the clear connection between higher education and Oregon's social and economic well-being will demand that the beginning lawmakers made Friday be sustained. |
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