re: Here is an easy $62.5 million to address the states shortfall.

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JBE can't fix constitution you do. Amendments must be approved by the public

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The constitution can be rewritten. It's been done before 10 times. The state senate can call a constitutional convention. It's in desperate need of being rewritten.

bingeaux

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It is time to close Nichols, McNeese, LSU-S, LSU-E, LSU-A, UNO, SUNO, Southern Shreveport, Southern Law, and Grambling.

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So your brilliant idea to fix the ailing higher ed system is to dismantle it?
Louisiana ranks near the bottom of the list in nearly every measurable educational statistic (including post-secondary attainment). In spite of what you see as budget mismanagement, Louisiana is at or near the bottom in higher ed expenditures. Also, if memory serves, Louisiana institutions rank in the top 15 in higher ed budget efficiency nationally.

So... the fat is already trimmed. If you want to cut, it needs to come from elsewhere.

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LSU football is an economic engine worth hundreds of millions of dollars annually to the state

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Ignoring the hundreds, if not thousands, of jobs that would be eliminated by closing all of the institutions you mentioned (not to mention the negative impact of the state's percentage of degreed employees plummeting/students leaving the state for schools in nearby Texas, Arkansas or Mississippi rather than staying home)?

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Thats the real problem here. Open up the books and cut the ridiculous fat that the state spends on state employees. Trim the state workforce by 50% and make people actually work for a living. Eliminate the many depts that have no value and consolidate like actual businesses do.

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No argument here. But the point of all this football chain rattling is to leverage budgetary amendments in a "magical special session."

Ah, there it is!

You work yourself up in a lather about welfare mommas buying lobster w/ foodstamps, but, you're cool with shoveling money to the Robertsons, Tom Benson, California movie industry, etc

No both are severe problems!

You misinterpreted my post. I didn't say it didn't happen, its unfortunate that people lost their jobs, I'm saying it didn't happen as much as demonstrated by that article. Several hundred or a few thousand losing their jobs isn't equivalent to 30k.

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That may have been the truth in the past, but nowadays the workload for governmental employees (the peons, not the managers...that is another topic) is greater now than ever before.

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oh please.

Maybe government workers have plenty on their plate, but the efficiency of a private sector worker is far, far greater than that of a government worker.

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Maybe government workers have plenty on their plate, but the efficiency of a private sector worker is far, far greater than that of a government worker.

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This is only true long term. There are plenty of lazy asses working in the private sector, and get to keep their jobs (whether it is because they are family, or because they have blackmail pictures, whatever).

I agree that Civil Service needs to make it easier to fire a classified employee. I think the State would be run much more efficiently.

But, generally, I would say the efficiency of the top employees of both sectors are about the same. Where you get the discrepancy is in the lower level employees. This is because if you suck at your job in the private sector, you are fired (unless the above qualifications apply to you). In the governmental sector, it takes the proverbial "Act of Congress" to fire a classified employee.

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Take a moment and think critically about the implications of what you're proposing. Do you really think it would be that easy?

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I have thought about it for years. We have too many full 4 year universities serving a small number of state residents. The average enrollment is about 10,000, but that is skewed by LSU, ULL and Southeastern. Several of these universities have less than 5000 students. We have two separate boards governing those universities. Each university has to have their own administration, physical plant, etc. This duplication of costs is unnecessary, especially in a state our size.

There is no reason why we need full 4 year universities for each geographic area of the state. People may have to travel to go to school.

I doubt the economic impact is as large as you are stating. Many of the areas with these universities have not grown tremendously due to hosting universities. The Monroe/Ruston area has three universities. The combined population of those two towns is under 75,000. Staggering growth has not occurred. Moreover, none of the smaller schools are world class research universities bringing in millions of dollars via their research.

Yes, people would lose jobs. People are losing jobs all over the state right now. When the budget deficit is as large as advertised hard decisions must be made. Very little reason exists for paying for such a bloated system. We would have a stronger university system if we consolidated and focused what money we do have on building a few very strong, populous universities rather than diluting the state's limited funds to maintain facilities in so many different areas.

As for the brain drain, it has been advertised for years. It has either already happening or is overrated. Closing down universities with small enrollments and no real research facilities will not contribute to brain drain.

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But, generally, I would say the efficiency of the top employees of both sectors are about the same. Where you get the discrepancy is in the lower level employees.

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Of course there are highly intelligent and highly-efficient public sector workers. I'm not saying that every single government worker is a lazy buffoon. There are great ones out there.

But on average, the efficiency of private sector workers is far greater than government workers. There are very few reasonable people that would deny that.