For years, the General Assembly has refused to do a significant part of their job:they've done nothing to ensure the quality of higher education in the Commonwealth. Now, three schools, including the University, want to officially step in and take on much of the responsibility that the legislature has ignored. Since state legislators have been unable and unwilling to appropriate the hundreds of millions of dollars necessary to adequately fund Virginia colleges, the least they can do is back this proposal as the best way to save public institutions of higher education from financial disaster.
The University, along with Virginia Tech and the College of William & Mary, has proposed a charter plan under which these schools would take on much of the educational administrative duties of the Commonwealth. These schools would be officially classified as "political subdivisions" of the state, and have more freedom to set tuition and manage capital projects. In return, the expected financial contribution of the Commonwealth to these schools would be permitted to drop significantly.
This proposal comes after 15 years of plummeting state support of higher education. According to the University, in the 1988-1989 fiscal year, state funding comprised 28.1 percent of the University's spending. This year, that level has fallen to 8.1 percent. When compared to other peer institutions, the situation looks even bleaker. According to the Center for the Study of Education Policy, state appropriation for the University per in-state student is less than half of the state funding that goes to Berkeley and UNC-Chapel Hill. All in all, the University gets over $12,500 less per student than public schools of comparable stature.
This proposal is likely to be hotly debated in Richmond, and even committed advocates of higher education are reluctant to support it. According to Ellen Qualls, Warner's press secretary, "the Governor is open to discussion of more autonomy for Virginia's institutions, and in fact, did not include the tuition cap in this year's budget. His first priority, however, is to get a budget passed that begins to address Virginia's chronic underfunding of higher education
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