Hold politicians more accountable for higher-ed funds

When Alexander Blewett recently made his $10 million donation to the UM Law School, he remarked that, in his view, public education in Montana is under attack; that there are a significant number of legislators who do not believe in public education and who have blocked even inflationary increases in funding.

This is a significant part of the explanation of why once-free public education at Montana universities is now extremely expensive and enrollment is dropping.

I suspect, however, that the under-funding of higher education is not supported by the majority of Montanans. When these legislators are campaigning, they do not talk about funding higher education. They don’t say, “Oh, by the way, I intend to reduce the public funding of higher education.” They like juicier and more volatile subjects.

At the next election let’s ask candidates to what extent they will fund higher education. They will give us evasive answers. We expect that, but getting a clearly stated answer was not the purpose of the question. The purpose is to let the candidate know that there are voters who support higher education, and they will be watching her/him.

The regents and the governor have been remiss. Over the years they have violated one of the basic rules of politics: Ask for what you need; never ask for what you can expect to get. That is a losing game. You start there and end up with even less than you thought you’d get. Such is the freezing-of-tuition game they play. It is long past time to go on the offensive.

It is hard to think of a legislative responsibility that is more important to the future of our state than adequately funded higher education — not only crucial to the economy but also to the health of the polity and the freedoms of the citizens. —Robert O’Neil, Kalispell