Legislative Preview: Education
By Art Jester
AJESTER@HERALD-LEADER.COM
For Kentucky's state universities and community colleges, the state's 3 percent budget cut is about as inviting as a walk down a dark alley.
It's almost impossible to see what lies ahead, but it provokes fear and could cause harm.
The danger, in the view of the college presidents, lies not in the 3 percent cut through the end of the current fiscal year, ending June 30.
The peril, they say, is the long-term effect of that cut plus another nearly certain cut for fiscal 2008-2009.
This could send post-secondary education into a stall just as it seemed to be picking up momentum to push toward the goals of Kentucky's higher education reform act of 1997.
The universities will need a "major infusion of new facilities and operating money" if they are to meet the reform goals by 2020, said Northern Kentucky University President James Votruba.
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COMING SUNDAY: GAMBLING
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