If University Economists Ruled The World
By: Doug Busselman, Executive Vice President
Having spent a good deal of time this year focused on the future of the state of Nevada as a member of the Nevada Vision Stakeholders group I’ve been very fortunate to have received a whole lot of information about a lot of different aspects of Nevada’s economy, educational system and infrastructure. Although not a native of Nevada, I’ve spent the last 22-plus years of my life here and have come to consider Nevada as my home. As a parent and a grandparent I have a number of very good reasons to care about Nevada becoming all it can be as a state and for my home community of Reno to also be a good place to live.
From these perspectives and background I read with interest the report “Reno 2020 ” prepared by the Center for Regional Studies at the College of Business, (University of Nevada, Reno). According to the report the Center for Regional Studies at UNR was asked by the Reno Gazette Journal to help with the development of scenarios for what northern Nevada might look like in ten years – 2020.
As was the case when the Nevada Vision Stakeholders did their work, the ability to figure out what tea leaves were the most important, seemed to me to be a problem for the folks working on “Reno 2020” as well. In the case of the Nevada Vision Stakeholders, there were so many Las Vegas folks in the group it was a struggle to understand that Nevada actually extended beyond the mountains which form the Las Vegas Valley. In the case of the Reno 2020 report, it seemed the ivory towers of UNR and whether that institution gets all the funding that they believe is necessary were limiting factors for an ability to see a vision – or at least a vision that covers a more 360 degree perspective.
The opening “possible scenario of how a chain of events could develop over time” set the stage for what seems to be the worst case possibility in the minds of those economists who draw paychecks from this state institution –
Needless to say things spiral downward from that point to the point where Reno becomes the “Detroit of the West.”
While it would be important to figure out strategies for possible ways community-minded citizens and leaders could work together for effective gains for our area – this obsession with making sure that we get all the funding scraped together that these educational elitists believe they deserve…needs to simmer down a bit.
Yes, education is, has been and probably always will be the most critical investment we can make through the funding made available to government. It’s a big reason that of Nevada’s total general fund over 54 percent goes to that set of priorities already (39 percent to K-12 and 15 percent to Higher Education).
It would be nice, if we could get in return for the money spent some results. Perhaps a little more than the graduation rates (less than half of our students graduating from high school) would be a worthwhile objective.
As to Higher Education, I understand the concept of how critical the “new economy” will require an improved knowledge base. I understand the ways in which research and development can be economic drivers in bringing together entrepreneurs and others who want to boldly form business enterprises around state-of-the-art and cutting edge concepts.
What I don’t understand is why University officials don’t build their case for resources on what they have been doing to get us where they say we need to be going…
It seems we’re supposed to pay more so they can do all these things that they say they are going to do – but, what are they doing with the resources they already are getting (15 percent of $6.5 Billion isn’t chump change)? Wouldn’t it seem possible that if they were doing what they should be doing with what they’ve got already…we wouldn’t be in the mess economically that we seem to be in? It’s either that or central planning an economy -- looking out at the world from the ivory towers -- might not be the best vantage point for determining the best solutions (beyond businesses need to pay higher taxes and give Universities more money)…
Having spent a good deal of time this year focused on the future of the state of Nevada as a member of the Nevada Vision Stakeholders group I’ve been very fortunate to have received a whole lot of information about a lot of different aspects of Nevada’s economy, educational system and infrastructure. Although not a native of Nevada, I’ve spent the last 22-plus years of my life here and have come to consider Nevada as my home. As a parent and a grandparent I have a number of very good reasons to care about Nevada becoming all it can be as a state and for my home community of Reno to also be a good place to live.
From these perspectives and background I read with interest the report “Reno 2020 ” prepared by the Center for Regional Studies at the College of Business, (University of Nevada, Reno). According to the report the Center for Regional Studies at UNR was asked by the Reno Gazette Journal to help with the development of scenarios for what northern Nevada might look like in ten years – 2020.
As was the case when the Nevada Vision Stakeholders did their work, the ability to figure out what tea leaves were the most important, seemed to me to be a problem for the folks working on “Reno 2020” as well. In the case of the Nevada Vision Stakeholders, there were so many Las Vegas folks in the group it was a struggle to understand that Nevada actually extended beyond the mountains which form the Las Vegas Valley. In the case of the Reno 2020 report, it seemed the ivory towers of UNR and whether that institution gets all the funding that they believe is necessary were limiting factors for an ability to see a vision – or at least a vision that covers a more 360 degree perspective.
The opening “possible scenario of how a chain of events could develop over time” set the stage for what seems to be the worst case possibility in the minds of those economists who draw paychecks from this state institution –
“The Nevada Legislature determines that the budget gap must be entirely covered by reduced spending, leading to significant cuts in education, higher education and local government employment. Teachers, faculty, and government employees leave the state, with the accompanying loss in consumer spending and housing demand. Research dollars flowing into NSHE institutions decline, leading to more cuts in spending and economic impact…”
Needless to say things spiral downward from that point to the point where Reno becomes the “Detroit of the West.”
While it would be important to figure out strategies for possible ways community-minded citizens and leaders could work together for effective gains for our area – this obsession with making sure that we get all the funding scraped together that these educational elitists believe they deserve…needs to simmer down a bit.
Yes, education is, has been and probably always will be the most critical investment we can make through the funding made available to government. It’s a big reason that of Nevada’s total general fund over 54 percent goes to that set of priorities already (39 percent to K-12 and 15 percent to Higher Education).
It would be nice, if we could get in return for the money spent some results. Perhaps a little more than the graduation rates (less than half of our students graduating from high school) would be a worthwhile objective.
As to Higher Education, I understand the concept of how critical the “new economy” will require an improved knowledge base. I understand the ways in which research and development can be economic drivers in bringing together entrepreneurs and others who want to boldly form business enterprises around state-of-the-art and cutting edge concepts.
What I don’t understand is why University officials don’t build their case for resources on what they have been doing to get us where they say we need to be going…
It seems we’re supposed to pay more so they can do all these things that they say they are going to do – but, what are they doing with the resources they already are getting (15 percent of $6.5 Billion isn’t chump change)? Wouldn’t it seem possible that if they were doing what they should be doing with what they’ve got already…we wouldn’t be in the mess economically that we seem to be in? It’s either that or central planning an economy -- looking out at the world from the ivory towers -- might not be the best vantage point for determining the best solutions (beyond businesses need to pay higher taxes and give Universities more money)…
Posted by Doug Busselman at 10/6/2010 9:02 AM 
Categories: Nevada Educational Funding
Tags: Nevada Budget State Spending Taxes Government
Categories: Nevada Educational Funding
Tags: Nevada Budget State Spending Taxes Government
Great post Doug.
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It appears that Doug may have gotten hung up in the study introduction and didn't get through the entire report. An understanding of what has happened to our economy is paramount to finding solutions (read beyond the introduction). Several actual recommendations for economic development are included in the final trend analysis beginning on page 27, with some specific recommendations on page 30. Note that the short-term recommendations include no mention of higher education. The section on the fiscal system (page 25) make no mention of education.
That being said, with Nevada facing the highest unemployment rate in the nation, with northern Nevada's biggest industry in long-term decline, and with Las Vegas earning the title of "Dumbest City in America" http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/oct/26/americas-dumbest-city-annual-report-says-its-las-v/, I don't believe that it would be self-serving for someone from the university to observe that Nevada has both comparatively low levels of education attainment and comparatively low levels of funding for education. Coincidence? Maybe not.
Doug's suggestion that the university system should justify its budget - somehow based on this study - seems to be quite a reach. Doug - did you find any useful information in the study? Was there anything contained therein that you didn't already know?
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Thank you Richard for reading the blog and for sharing your comment. Actually, I did read the whole report and when I went back to review the specifics of your comments, I found my earlier highlighting about the need for Nevada to attract the facilities connected with manufacturing components for renewable energy -- otherwise they wouldn't require the amount of employment that some would like to see develop from this new technology. In additional conversations that I had with others about the report, it was noted that many of the projections offered in the report were very well researched on presented. I don't know that the link to the Las Vegas Sun was relative to the blog or the topic of the Reno report, but everyone is entitled to their comments. I do stand by my points that the case for building support for more financial support for Higher Education needs to be linked to the specifics on what is being done now to help create the foundation for the new economy that we're supposed to be working to develop into. Thanks again for your comments!
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I think too tight a link between higher education and what we imagine now to be the foundation for a new economy might be a mistake. We will never be able to guess exactly what the new economy really will be, so at least some portion of teaching and research should not narrowly target a specific sector or sectors. I'm glad the discussion goes on though, so thank you Doug for taking the time to read the report and respond to it.
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