Thanks, Jindal/GOP: Louisiana higher education officials say campus closures are a possibility

[KeepItReal]

Public college and university campuses in Louisiana could close if the state ends up cutting $300 million or more out of its higher education budget during the next fiscal cycle.

Legislators and higher education officials said Louisiana college systems would have to shut the doors of multiple institutions and campuses if the schools have to absorb a funding reduction of that size. Around 15 locations -- including three in the University of Louisiana system and six in the community and technical college cohort -- could be directly affected.

...

Closing college and university sites can be a tough issue politically, since higher education institutions often drive business, employment and other activity in their surrounding communities. State lawmakers frequently fight proposals to close schools, particularly if the shutdown will affect their own district and constituents.

...

Higher education is also not the only thing keeping legislators up at night about the coming state budget reductions. Legislators said Jindal is supposedly looking to take some $250 million out of state health services in the next fiscal year.

http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2015/01/college_university_closures_mi.html#incart_m-rpt-2


Gov. Jindal (R) is giving speeches in Europe about foreign policy while his "home" state is defunding educational institutions and health services.

How this dude thinks he's eligible to run for POTUS just shows how much of a bubble he and his people live in.

Even the rabid RW troll commenters on NOLA.com can't stand the guy. And that is saying something.

(Meanwhile my new home of California is figuring out the best way to allocate budget surplus to increase education and social services funding. Funny how Democratic leadership works...)

[KamaAina]

1. Way back in the late '80s, there was a plan to merge two campuses in NOLA

the University of New Orleans and Southern University's New Orleans campus, which are near one another on the lakefront.

SUNO students objected vehemently to their historically black institution in effect being folded into UNO. Watch for this to come up again.

[KeepItReal]

5. They tried it 2011. It was pulled before it could embarass Jindal.

A proposal to merge Southern University at New Orleans and the University of New Orleans died in the Legislature late Wednesday when House Speaker Jim Tucker, R-Algiers, pulled the measure from consideration.

A proposal to merger Southern University of New Orleans and the University of New Orleans has died in the Legislature.
The bill, strongly backed by Gov. Bobby Jindal, and just as strongly opposed by the Legislative Black Caucus, would have merged the historically black SUNO with the majority white, but racially mixed, UNO into a single lakefront campus with two units.

Tucker said he withdrew the bill from consideration after he concluded that he didn't have the required 70 votes to pass it and send it to the Senate for consideration.

http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2011/05/suno-uno_merger_proposal_dies.html

Merging two or three universities won't save $300 million.

[KamaAina]

6. Factoid: UNO was the first public university in the South never to be segregated.

It was not founded until the late 1950s.

[KeepItReal]

8. Maybe that's why I'm a UNO Alumnus

[MineralMan]

2. Turning the U.S. into a third-world nation, one state at a time.

Why not close the colleges and universities in Louisiana? What the heck? They're just hotbeds of libralism {sic}. Everybody sing:

"We don't need no education.
We don't need no though control...."

[KeepItReal]

7. Someone should propose closing LSU. *That* would grab voters' attention.

Jindal is careful not to do anything draconian to the flagship school - it might actually register with folks.

Big cuts to other institutions in Louisiana just fly under the radar...

[KamaAina]

9. Or having them drop football

[KeepItReal]

10. LSU's athletic department is self-sufficient with zero impact on the state budget.

They've even donated millions to the academic side of the University at times.

[Faux pas]

4. And the

dumbing down of Amurka continues. ...