Rationing Education in a Time of Educational Demand: Which will we choose?

In the excellent summary article by Reeve Hamilton in the Texas Tribune, UNT Chancellor Lee Jackson is one of a number of Chancellors who comment on the upcoming budget cuts for higher education in Texas.  Of all the comments, Jackson's hit the issue most squarely.  The state of Texas cannot have their cake and eat it too.  In other words, you cannot have a burgeoning population that you continue to insist must have access to higher education while at the same time reducing the capacity to handle the growth.  This is contradictory policymaking.  There's not a moral right or wrong side to choose here.  But there is a side to choose here.  Texas leaders must make the hard call between cutting the budget to meet needs by 'rationing' public higher education (the result of cutting resources to colleges and universities dramatically) or promoting more access to higher education for more people.  These values are not easily reconciled. 

Texas University Chancellors Brace for Budget Cuts — Higher Education | The Texas Tribune

What worries UNT’s Jackson is the discussions that have cropped up in states like California, Florida and Nevada — states suffering through even deeper, more protracted budget problems. “They have discussed what are in effect rationing plans,” he says. These include limiting enrollment, restricting transfers from community colleges and deferring pursuits of lofty goals like recruiting top faculty. Such measures have yet to be discussed in Texas, which, Jackson says, has been emphasizing “more enrollments, more degrees, more research and more student access” even as cuts loom. “You can’t have a lot of expectations and not recognize the cost,” he says.