Nevada And Getting The Most From Dollars Spent For Higher Education
By: Doug Busselman, Executive Vice President
Having spent the last few days reviewing the proposals from the Nevada Taxpayers Association in their report, “Spending Reforms for Nevada ”, attention has gotten to the specifics on what they see as ideas for Nevada’s System of Higher Education. In spite of the hoopla over how much the Higher Education System took in budgetary cuts, under the 2009-2011 biennium budget, their portion of the total is General Fund is 15.3 percent.
While we fully understand and support the importance that higher education has to offer and in line with our specific support and on-going work for the College of Agriculture, Biotechnology and Natural Resources (CABNR) at the University of Nevada, Reno – getting the most for our taxpayer dollars is vital. The nine specific ideas that are offered by the Nevada Taxpayers Association serve as a good place for conversations to go in covering ways to enhance the educational product being obtained while at the same time insuring that dollars invested obtain the highest return.
The first suggestion for Higher Education actually is in the form of a proposed recommendation for both K-12 and Higher Ed., directing that those in the full spectrum of education in Nevada get together and “coordinate their long-range plans and educational programs”. Along with this sound proposal, the Taxpayers’ specific ideas for Higher Education include the development of performance measurements to evaluate the higher education system. Such an action step is a very good idea and we would recommend that this be included with opportunities for the private sector to offer input in order to tie whatever the Board of Regents and/or the Nevada Legislature might come up with for worthwhile metrics. (In some cases both of these bodies get a little esoteric in how they evaluate whether taxpayers are getting their money’s worth…having taxpayers actually having a say in the deliverables that they believe necessary would be a worthwhile activity.)
Proposal # 55 is also a noteworthy idea: “Identify the level of programs to be provided by community colleges, the State College and the Nevada System of Higher Education.” This idea is based on a cost-effective approach to target differing degrees of specialty to different levels and types of institutions. Although we have to give the concept some more thought and discussion on how the College of Agriculture and the University of Nevada, Reno being a “Land Grant” institution – it might go a long way in matching up expectations of what agricultural producers see relevant and the approach taken by the University in offering educational and research programs. We also consider the work that the Great Basin College is doing as really a strong contribution without a lot of the drama involved in attempting to turn things around at UNR and the College of Agriculture.
In the thinking of the Nevada Taxpayers Association proposals it seems that research work would be in the realm of the University level and they suggest to concentrate on research programs “which will assist in providing economic viability to Nevada.” The proposal suggest that attention be given to the model used by the State of Georgia in order to help get things on track to coordinate the efforts of research programs which benefit economic development and diversification.
Pursuing these recommendations should be a priority for the Nevada Board of Regents as well as concepts to be explored by the Nevada Legislature. Along the way other ideas that surface can be added to help us in getting the quality Higher Educational system we need to have and can afford.
Having spent the last few days reviewing the proposals from the Nevada Taxpayers Association in their report, “Spending Reforms for Nevada ”, attention has gotten to the specifics on what they see as ideas for Nevada’s System of Higher Education. In spite of the hoopla over how much the Higher Education System took in budgetary cuts, under the 2009-2011 biennium budget, their portion of the total is General Fund is 15.3 percent.
While we fully understand and support the importance that higher education has to offer and in line with our specific support and on-going work for the College of Agriculture, Biotechnology and Natural Resources (CABNR) at the University of Nevada, Reno – getting the most for our taxpayer dollars is vital. The nine specific ideas that are offered by the Nevada Taxpayers Association serve as a good place for conversations to go in covering ways to enhance the educational product being obtained while at the same time insuring that dollars invested obtain the highest return.
The first suggestion for Higher Education actually is in the form of a proposed recommendation for both K-12 and Higher Ed., directing that those in the full spectrum of education in Nevada get together and “coordinate their long-range plans and educational programs”. Along with this sound proposal, the Taxpayers’ specific ideas for Higher Education include the development of performance measurements to evaluate the higher education system. Such an action step is a very good idea and we would recommend that this be included with opportunities for the private sector to offer input in order to tie whatever the Board of Regents and/or the Nevada Legislature might come up with for worthwhile metrics. (In some cases both of these bodies get a little esoteric in how they evaluate whether taxpayers are getting their money’s worth…having taxpayers actually having a say in the deliverables that they believe necessary would be a worthwhile activity.)
Proposal # 55 is also a noteworthy idea: “Identify the level of programs to be provided by community colleges, the State College and the Nevada System of Higher Education.” This idea is based on a cost-effective approach to target differing degrees of specialty to different levels and types of institutions. Although we have to give the concept some more thought and discussion on how the College of Agriculture and the University of Nevada, Reno being a “Land Grant” institution – it might go a long way in matching up expectations of what agricultural producers see relevant and the approach taken by the University in offering educational and research programs. We also consider the work that the Great Basin College is doing as really a strong contribution without a lot of the drama involved in attempting to turn things around at UNR and the College of Agriculture.
In the thinking of the Nevada Taxpayers Association proposals it seems that research work would be in the realm of the University level and they suggest to concentrate on research programs “which will assist in providing economic viability to Nevada.” The proposal suggest that attention be given to the model used by the State of Georgia in order to help get things on track to coordinate the efforts of research programs which benefit economic development and diversification.
Pursuing these recommendations should be a priority for the Nevada Board of Regents as well as concepts to be explored by the Nevada Legislature. Along the way other ideas that surface can be added to help us in getting the quality Higher Educational system we need to have and can afford.
Posted by Doug Busselman at 6/22/2010 10:11 AM 
Categories: Nevada Educational Funding
Tags: University of Nevada Nevada College of Agriculture Agriculture
Categories: Nevada Educational Funding
Tags: University of Nevada Nevada College of Agriculture Agriculture
privatize education. have businesses that provide the jobs to have a better say how future employees (not future college students) are to be trained.
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