Reform 2.0: Pass on MnSCU Failure

As my colleague at Let Freedom Ring has been focusing on of late, we pay out millions to MnSCU - our Minnesota State Colleges & Universities system.  Quoting the MnSCU Web Site:

With its 31 institutions, including 24 two-year colleges and seven state universities, the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system is the largest single provider of higher education in the state of Minnesota.

The colleges and universities operate 54 campuses in 47 Minnesota communities and serve about 250,000 students in credit-based courses. Overall, the system produces about 33,500 graduates each year.

In addition to credit-based courses, the system offers customized training programs that serve about 153,200 employees from 6,000 Minnesota businesses each year.

The law creating the system was passed by the Minnesota Legislature in 1991 and went into effect July 1, 1995. The law merged the state's community colleges, technical colleges and state universities into one system.

The system is separate from the University of Minnesota.

MnSCU embodies a number of problems I'll call the Terrible Too's that need reform.

• It is overall much too large, a big part of the obvious oversupply of higher education in Minnesota.  Many, I'd say most of the campuses should be sold or closed.  Don't forget the many private institutions that face unfair subsidized competition from these public operations.
• The MnSCU Administration provides too little oversight, i.e. is of little value to its members.  Meanwhile, state-wide goals like inter-school credit transferability are going unmet.
• While separate from the University of Minnesota system, there is too much overlap between them.  They both need to focus on their respective core missions.  The notion of North Hennepin Community College offering four year degrees is unnecessary bordering on laughable.
• There are too many soft degree programs that are of no real value to students or their potential employers.  The "invest in education" metaphor clearly does not apply to "Eco-Tourism" or other self-actualizing studies.
• Academic rigor has suffered from too much dumbing down, perhaps because flunked out students don't pay tuition next semester?  The terror once known as Freshman English is gone.

Given financial problem number one - oversupply - I would not hesitate to cut MnSCU's funding in half.  I'd keep its superstructure for now, to decide what to keep.  And it would take a very convincing report from MnSCU to keep me from cutting it substantially more two years later, ultimately eliminating the MnSCU concept.

Don't forget, MnSCU is only 20 years old.  We ran decades before that without any such coordination.  Given how little synergy was produced, we can do without that coordination as before.

Comments

[J. Ewing]

It does sound like a lot of duplication. Any reason why MnSCU schools should not become U of M "branch campi"? Then we could have one set of rules, one administration (with a local dean or somesuch in each) and probably save a lot of money. Heck, if we toughen up entrance requirements we could probably save even more. Every additional student costs the taxpayer two or three times what they pay in tuition, and most don't even earn THAT back, according to the latest studies.