Governor's proposed 20% cuts to TN higher education funding would devastate state's future

Despite his lecture of Tennessee higher ed officials, Gov. Phil Bredesen today was way off the mark if he means to push the state beyond just creating new auto industry workers and phone center clerks.

Proposed cuts of 20% are ridiculous and unacceptable. If a state is to move forward, you don't devastate higher education. These colleges and universities often are the ones that have to provide remedial education to Tennessee's children who are not properly educated in K-12 and not ready for higher learning.

Yet Bredesen doesn't want to cut his pre-K program either. So the focus is on higher ed with cuts and raising tuition on Tennessee families. That is reckless and derelict. Tennessee's economic future depends on the molding of its brain power on these campuses.

The governor, however, has no problem in giving away more than $600 million in taxpayer freebies to Volkswagen to build a new car plant in Chattanooga. And the jobs are not restricted to Tennesseans. People from Alabama and Georgia can also get the jobs. Big oversight, eh, Guv?

Unfortunately for Tennessee, new car buying in this nation has disappeared and will not reappear for two or more years. Layoffs already are mounting in this industry across the country and in Tennessee.

Bredesen gambled and lost. Now he would risk Tennessee's economic long-term future by cheating the state's colleges and universities of needed funding.

For a man educated at Harvard, he sure is not very smart.