Tom Auxter letter to members
UFF President Tom Auxter sent the following to members earlier this week:
Colleagues:
We have an historic opportunity to change the tax structure in Florida. Faculty are specifically invited by the Taxation and Budget Reform Commission to submit comments on the effects of under funding. Commissioners want to know how under funding has affected the quality and the delivery of what students receive in higher education.The Commission has the power (from the Legislature) to write language proposing a change in the tax structure that will appear on the November 2008 ballot. The results of our efforts (contacting Commissioners now) could change our economic picture for two decades (until the next Commission begins work). This is our chance to make the case for more adequate and stable funding. We are urging the Commission to adopt a proposal that allows Florida to harvest the benefits that come with investing in a developed and well-functioning higher education system.
Contact the Florida Taxation and Budget Commission now, from your computer off campus, with comments on the problems faculty and students face with inadequate funding. Give examples from your campus. See Talking Points below.
Tom Auxter
President, United Faculty of Florida
Talking Points for Taxation and Budget Reform Commission
1. The student-faculty ratio is already at the bottom (49th) in national rankings. (Only Louisiana is worse.) Budget cuts this year have forced universities and colleges to place a hiring freeze on faculty. This makes things even worse for students. Students cannot get the courses they need to graduate, and they cannot get the attention they deserve from professors who are teaching overcrowded classes. Under funding limits student access to higher education. Enrollment at the state universities has been frozen. For the students who are already enrolled we see an increase in graduation time and a decrease in rates of graduation.
2. Faculty are leaving Florida higher education at an alarming rate. In the universities, the turnover rate last year was 14%. It is impossible to staff departments with the qualified faculty they need to cover all the subjects necessary because they leave as soon as they find employment elsewhere — at higher salaries and with better teaching conditions. (Full time faculty under 55 are leaving at the rate of 8% per year.) Recruiting new faculty is especially difficult when they hear that there is a freeze on salaries or that classes are crowded (if students can even get the classes they need). In many of the community colleges, the starting salaries are lower than the starting salaries for teachers in the local school district while the costs of housing are beyond reach. This makes recruitment and retention an on-going problem that directly affects students.
3. The quality of the education students receive is directly threatened by these severe budget problems. The quality deteriorates when students cannot get the attention they deserve from faculty teaching crowded classes and when classes are not available. The quality also deteriorates when faculty specialists are leaving at a rate that makes it impossible to cover all the specialized topics that need to be covered in a department.
4. It is shortsighted to think that the State can save money by reducing its commitment to higher education. Higher education is the engine that drives the State’s economy. (Florida fluctuates between 49th and 50th in national rankings of per capita expenditures for higher education.) A developed economy requires a developed higher education system to supply the kinds of employees necessary to run it. Moreover, large business operations will not open their doors in a state that cannot attract talented employees with educational benefits. The State also saves money from an educated population that has less crime and fewer health problems.
5. The only lasting solution for a viable higher education system is to change the tax structure so that there is enough revenue to support the needs of students and so that funds available do not change dramatically with every fluctuation in sales tax collection or real estate market values. We need reform now in creating a sustainable relationship between budget and taxation.
6. A recent study by the College Board, Education Pays, confirms what all such studies have been saying for several years: Higher education more than pays for itself in direct economic benefits: lifetime income of college graduates who pay taxes, employees with pensions funds in retirement and health insurance with employment who do not require expensive social services, increased relocation of businesses to states that have an educated population, dramatic reduction in crime rate and violence which saves the state money in several ways, and much healthier habits with regard to smoking, eating, and exercise which saves medical costs and increases vitality. There are also other benefits like increased volunteerism and civic participation that have definite economic benefits but are harder to measure in dollars.
All of these factors add up to a conclusion that is repeated every time studies are conducted: Higher education is the single most cost-effective expenditure a state can make. It is an investment, not a drain on the state economy. Yet an inadequate tax structure in Florida throws the state budget into crisis every few years, and higher education is the first to be cut. We need an adequate, diversified tax structure that taxes all of Florida’s citizens fairly to sustain the quality of life we all expect in the state. Otherwise, we will continue to budget just enough money to have the bare-bones of a system of higher education without having the ability to spend just enough more to make it work efficiently and produce the economic benefits we all want to see.
