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The University of Maine System may be turning over a new (Le) page — that is, if the governor proves to be a swift political actor, not just a persuasive penman.
Recently, Gov. Paul LePage penned a letter to the chair of the University of Maine System’s board of trustees vying for “innovative and dramatic” change in the funding formula for the state’s public universities.
Behind the letter is a strong pro-change sentiment, urging trustees to re-examine issues facing higher education’s link to statewide job creation.
A notable part of the letter asks trustees to question the future role of the chancellor’s office, which has long been bloated.
But that information is public and well-publicized.
If the governor can address redundancy and get dollars “into the classroom,” as he so often states, he could be Maine higher education’s unlikely hero.
That’s still a big “if.”
Jonathan Nass, a senior policy advisor for LePage on issues such as education, noted on behalf of the letter’s argument that: “Funds to each campus are still being distributed on a model from 1969.”
On the surface, one would think modern budgeting for the modern monetary sum is, quite plainly, necessary. Why does a governor need to point this out? Are his ideas so revolutionary?
No. The minutes from a 2009 trustees meeting pointed out a task force discussed funding formula datedness. A trustee even recommended action.
They just haven’t done anything about it. LePage can’t afford to make the same mistake.
Chancellor Richard Pattenaude said LePage “offers us valuable ideas and reinforces the sense of urgency we feel to make the university system more efficient, more affordable and more responsive to the needs of the state.”
LePage’s call for “incremental reform” is necessary, which makes Pattenaude’s polite, effusive praise ironic and unbelievable.
That’s because LePage’s main ideas have been suggested before. If the system so highly valued such ideas, problems would have been fixed chancellors ago.
Put our money where your mouth is, governor. Do right by all college students — liberal arts, sciences and vocational scholars alike — by shepherding sweeping higher education reform.
The record shows the system won’t do it without you.
Retraction: A story that appeared on page A1 of the Oct. 25, 2010 version of The Maine Campus used incomplete information when referring to overlaps between University of Maine and University of Maine System budgets.
Only 36.4 percent of UMaine’s 2011 preliminary budget was for financial management, development, student affairs and facilities management, part of the president’s office, administration and finance and research, areas also with system budget lines.
This statistic was errantly rounded to 37 percent in that original story and interpreted later in A1 stories on Sept. 8 and Sept. 29 as being indicative of duplication between UMaine and the system office. Online versions of those stories have been edited accordingly.
In this editorial on Sept. 29, it was said UMaine Vice President for Administration and Finance Janet Waldron verified the duplication. She verified the original statistic, but not in the context of duplication.
Bangor Daily News