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Blindsided by a Devastating Veto, Alaska University System Pleads for Lifeline

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Re: Blindsided by a Devastating Veto, Alaska University System Pleads for Lifeline

#61

Post by velcrovan »

magduf wrote: post #47
velcrovan wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whether or not this is a good strategy depends on how much damage will be caused and whether the subject is likely to actually make the connection between their choice and the harm it caused. A parenting analogy may be in order. Once I stopped my then 2yr old from walking over some broken glass, to her loud objection. It would have been stupid to allow even such impermanent injuries as bloody cuts on her feet in orde…

The problem with your parenting analogy is that we live under democratic systems, where the voters get to choose how to run things (indirectly, by electing representatives). The voters are all adults. If they want to do something utterly stupid, who's supposed to step in and stop them? Any person doing so would be acting in an anti-democratic manner; usually we deride such systems of government as "authoritarian". So…

A representative democracy, which is what we have, is a good middle ground.

If the governor had campaigned on gutting the university in particular to achieve his goal, rather than on a vague promise of "more $" I might be more inclined to agree with you. As it is I think the responsible thing to do is for the legislature to override him on this if possible until the next election.

Re: Blindsided by a Devastating Veto, Alaska University System Pleads for Lifeline

#62

Post by horsawlarway »

velcrovan wrote: post #10
ijpoijpoihpiuoh wrote: post #2

Perhaps this makes me a terrible person, but I sometimes half hope to see things like this go through. The people of Alaska asked for this, and it will be interesting to see if they like getting what they asked for. The main reason it's only "half-hope" rather than fully hoping is that the damage from this will still affect people who didn't vote in favor of it. Those kids at the university deserve a better education…

Whether or not this is a good strategy depends on how much damage will be caused and whether the subject is likely to actually make the connection between their choice and the harm it caused. A parenting analogy may be in order. Once I stopped my then 2yr old from walking over some broken glass, to her loud objection. It would have been stupid to allow even such impermanent injuries as bloody cuts on her feet in orde…

I feel like this is a pretty terrible analogy.

The voting population of Alaska is comprised of adults. Not children to be parented.

The structure of power between federal gov and states is explicitly designed to give states the freedom to experiment with different policies (the whole "Laboratories of democracy" thing).

You think this cut will do lots of damage. The voting population in Alaska (or their duly elected representatives) believe otherwise.

Given that there's no magic ball to tell you how this will work out, it's blatantly un-democratic to claim you know better than the voters.

Instead we get to watch what happens to a university system when you cut the operating budget in half with little warning and no planning.

---

My hypothesis is that it's going to go badly, but I'm not sure by any means. It could be that these drastic cuts force the university system to trim real administrative fat, it could force them to be creative with purchasing and contracting to cut costs. It could have no real impact whatsoever.

Re: Blindsided by a Devastating Veto, Alaska University System Pleads for Lifeline

#63

Post by bduerst »

bunnyrooroo wrote: post #55
doctorpangloss wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another interpretation of your exact data is that this great amount of funding paid off, it educated you and attracted talented people to University of Alaska.

UA is a decent University System, but not more than that. In fact, a few months ago, the University of Alaska Anchorage lost accreditation for their teacher program. Yes, you read that correctly. The largest University in Alaska lost their accreditation for a program that is one of the most needed in the state. Getting people to teach in Alaska is a major issue for obvious reasons, and the largest university in the s…

>the largest university in the state did such a poor job that they lost their ability to graduate licensed teachers.

Maybe you can help me understand this, but how is the solution to cut funding further by 41%?

Re: Blindsided by a Devastating Veto, Alaska University System Pleads for Lifeline

#64

Post by LorenPechtel »

pbreit wrote: post #27

Unpopular opinion: there's probably a lot of fat to be cut and this is possibly the only way to do it. Prediction: The most customer-unfriendly trimming will come first.

Budget cutting is almost completely ineffective at fat cutting. If you want to cut fat you have to identify it first.

Re: Blindsided by a Devastating Veto, Alaska University System Pleads for Lifeline

#65

Post by bduerst »

agarden wrote: post #15
hedora wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On problem with saying “that red state asked for it; let them see how they like it when their kids are starving on the streets (since they will also vote against welfare)” is that the US counts votes in a way that means, as more people flee your conservative hell-hole to find work, the remaining people’s votes count more and more. Demographic projections say that the senate will be controlled by Make no mistake about…

You talk as if this were an unforeseen consequence of the way our legislature is set up. It is not. Giving the people who live in sparsely populated areas an equal voice with those who live in densely populated areas is the whole point of the Senate. It was designed to work this way and it is doing exactly what it was meant to do.

Population density has nothing to do with it. At it's founding, the constitution gives the Senate two votes per state, which is it's own legal entity.

There's a perceived culture war by people who live in rural america and your comment projecting it onto the purpose of the Senate is proof of that.

Re: Blindsided by a Devastating Veto, Alaska University System Pleads for Lifeline

#66

Post by toomuchtodo »

bduerst wrote: post #63
bunnyrooroo wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

UA is a decent University System, but not more than that. In fact, a few months ago, the University of Alaska Anchorage lost accreditation for their teacher program. Yes, you read that correctly. The largest University in Alaska lost their accreditation for a program that is one of the most needed in the state. Getting people to teach in Alaska is a major issue for obvious reasons, and the largest university in the s…

>the largest university in the state did such a poor job that they lost their ability to graduate licensed teachers. Maybe you can help me understand this, but how is the solution to cut funding further by 41%?

If you can't graduate teachers spending many times more than lower 48 colleges, more money isn't going to fix the problem.

Competitive pressures are required.

Re: Blindsided by a Devastating Veto, Alaska University System Pleads for Lifeline

#67

Post by toomuchtodo »

surge wrote: post #11
willk wrote: post #3

This feels really short sighted, all for an increased annual payout to residents that won't cover the cost of sending students to higher education.

The way I heard it described, the annual payout will increase, where as that money now goes towards social programs primarily aimed at children and families. So while that money will be in citizen's pockets, it likely won't get spent in a manner that will benefit society long term.

> social programs primarily aimed at children and families

> it likely won't get spent in a manner that will benefit society long term.

I don't understand how you reconcile these two statements. Social safety nets benefit society long term.

Re: Blindsided by a Devastating Veto, Alaska University System Pleads for Lifeline

#68

Post by fwip »

peteradio wrote: post #58
logfromblammo wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about representation proportional to economic activity instead of the quantity of state-ness being one or zero? With guaranteed representation of at least one seat, so the representation turns out to be slightly skewed against the powerhouses. Also note that Puerto Rico and Washington DC earn their seat by virtue of having enough economic activity, rather than by default. "Seats" is senate seats per state; "rep"…

What is column 1 and 2 with the numbers?

The first number column is "seats per state". The second number column is "combined percentage of representatives" - PA and OH each have 5 representatives, so combined they have (5+5)/150 = 6.7% of the representation. The third column is, I presume, the percentage of economic activity (GDP?) totaled among those states.

Re: Blindsided by a Devastating Veto, Alaska University System Pleads for Lifeline

#69

Post by pbreit »

save_ferris wrote: post #36
pbreit wrote: post #27

Unpopular opinion: there's probably a lot of fat to be cut and this is possibly the only way to do it. Prediction: The most customer-unfriendly trimming will come first.

Cutting the budget by 41% just isn't responsible, no matter how you slice it. The governor is explicitly making this cut in order to increase the oil revenue dividend for residents to $3K per year.

It wasn't the budget that was cut by 41%, just the government's contribution. There's still tuition, bonds, etc.

Re: Blindsided by a Devastating Veto, Alaska University System Pleads for Lifeline

#70

Post by pbreit »

LorenPechtel wrote: post #64
pbreit wrote: post #27

Unpopular opinion: there's probably a lot of fat to be cut and this is possibly the only way to do it. Prediction: The most customer-unfriendly trimming will come first.

Budget cutting is almost completely ineffective at fat cutting. If you want to cut fat you have to identify it first.

I'm not sure I believe that. All evidence points to businesses and people becoming very effective at cost-cutting following a drop in income.
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