West Virginia’s Senate Finance Committee chairman has challenged comments from National Teachers Union leaders about academic cuts at the state’s flagship university.
“They argue that West Virginia residents should take a deeper use of their paychecks and subsidize the structural deficits within their universities,” said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Eric Turr, Republican. , Putnam) wrote in a memo to the National Federation of Teachers.
Mr Thah has regularly criticized the AFT, in this case calling it “an institution that defends socialist ideals”.
West Virginia University faces an estimated $45 million budget shortfall and aims to address the shortfall through tuition increases, the use of financial reserves, and staff and program reductions.
WVU announced last month a drastic, albeit tentative, cut to its academic programs. The proposal included cutting 169 faculty posts and removing 32 of the 338 majors. An appeals process is currently underway, and the university’s board of directors is expected to make a final decision next month.
Randy Weingarten, president of the American Teachers Federation, said: sent a letter It called on state and university officials to call the proposed cuts “harsh and devastating.”
“The scope and nature of these cuts raise fundamental questions about WVU’s commitment to students, surrounding communities and the nation,” Weingarten wrote.
Weingarten ended the three-page letter by urging university leaders to increase state aid to cover the expected shortfall.
Tarr objected.
“The real reason AFT is in this situation is because it worries other public universities will wake up and start correcting their own trajectory. Expenditure has created the turmoil in which our institutions of higher education are plagued. For the families and taxpayers who pay for their kids to go to college, let’s hope West Virginia doesn’t turn that trend and leave us alone. doing the right thing
West Virginia is fed up with AFT and NEA societal challenges that affect education policy. All it takes to validate your conservative decisions as legislators is to have the AFT, WVEA, ACLU, LGBTQ or AFL-CIO complain about those decisions,” he wrote.
Tarr said Congress passed a Higher Education Funding Scheme in 2021, providing a blueprint for how to fund West Virginia’s public universities.
“The way to benefit from that formula is to offer a degree that leads to jobs. WVU is now making changes that will allow that,” he wrote. “President Gee and West Virginia University should ignore AFT socialists.”
Critics point to flat or declining state support for higher education as one of the factors driving the university funding gap.
If the West Virginia legislature kept higher education funding at the same level as it did a decade ago, WVU would receive an estimated $37.6 million in additional state funding next year, filling much of this year’s budget gap. would have been, said the paper. analysis By the West Virginia Center for Budget Policy.
“Accountability should be held, and Congress shares the responsibility,” Monongalia Democrat delegate Evan Hansen said on Metro News’ “Talkline.”
“According to the numbers I’ve seen, if Congress hadn’t stopped funding public education for the past decade, WVU would have had an additional $38 million in funding this year. This is a shortfall. It takes up most of your forehead.”
Hansen said the state’s own finances have improved in recent years, with officials touting a surplus at the end of its most recent fiscal year.
At a special Congress earlier this month, Mr. Hansen proposed an amendment that could have directed $45 million to the university, but was ruled irrelevant to the bill under consideration. That would have brought WVU closer to historic allocation levels while also giving the university more time to consider its mission and financial priorities, he said.
“It’s a matter of priorities, and the state government is committed to supporting so many different types of jobs and so many different things across the state that our flagship universities are strong and diverse. It’s whether they think they need to offer a good major,” Hansen said.
