Of the 36 gubernatorial elections being decided on Tuesday, three have special resonance for people in higher education.
In each case, a Republican governor took a hard line on higher-ed spending; in each case, that governor now finds himself in electoral peril.
Two high-profile incumbents, Gov. Rick Scott of Florida and Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, are fighting for re-election in races that are considered tossups. And then there’s one race that is not close: In Pennsylvania, Gov. Tom Corbett is considered a likely loser on Election Day.
Those three were among the wave of new Republican state lawmakers and executives who swept into office in the 2010 elections, giving the GOP control of a majority of the nation’s governors’ mansions and legislative chambers. Their election followed the recession, as state governments struggled with shrinking tax revenues.
The three governors ripped pages from the same playbook: deep cuts for higher education at a time when enrollments were increasing.
But their attempts at higher-education reform have not gone all that smoothly. Now, at the end of their first terms in office, all three find themselves largely at odds with their college constituents.
Defeats on Tuesday for Governors Corbett, Scott, and Walker could bring shifts in policy for their states’ public colleges. But don’t expect a big increase in appropriations if their Democratic opponents win: Most state economies continue to grow slowly, and the challengers say they will focus largely on relieving student debt, not on increasing spending for colleges.
Whether or not the incumbents win, the tight races may be a signal from voters that fiscal restraint has its limits, said Daniel J. Hurley, director of state relations and policy analysis at the American Association of State Colleges and Universities.
“What message is sent in states with these close matchups?” Mr. Hurley asked. “Did these Republican lawmakers take it too far in terms of cutting taxes and reducing spending?”
Florida: Accountability vs. Anthropology
Gov. Rick Scott, who is finishing his first term as the state’s chief executive, has had an often-strained relationship with public colleges. The tension began in 2011, when he made the case that the state should put its higher-education money into majors that produce jobs, especially in science and technology.
In the process, though, he disparaged anthropology—the degree, paradoxically, that his daughter had earned as an undergraduate.
“I want that money to go to degrees where people can get jobs in this state,” he said at the time. “Is it a vital interest of the state to have more anthropologists? I don’t think so.”
Stressing accountability, the governor then sent a lengthy questionnaire to the state’s 11 public universities, seeking information that they had, for the most part, already provided in their annual reports. Governor Scott also posted online the salary information of the universities’ employees.
More recently, the governor has taken a different tack with public colleges, giving extra money to the University of Florida and Florida State University to hire faculty members and conduct research. And this year, he signed a bill allowing some students who were brought to the United States illegally as children to qualify for cheaper in-state tuition rates.
That same measure also reversed a law that allowed the universities to raise tuition as much as 15 percent per year—a law signed by his predecessor and, now, challenger, Charlie Crist. Governor Scott’s law also caps the amount of money universities may receive from the state’s prepaid-tuition plan, a move that is expected to constrain tuition.
Mr. Crist was a Republican when he was elected governor, in 2006, but he’s running now as a Democrat. His proposed higher-education policies include a plan allowing students to refinance their college debt; a loan-forgiveness program for some students who earn degrees in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics; and more financial aid for low-income and first-generation students.
Wisconsin: An Incumbent’s Checkered First Term
Few governors have attracted as much attention during their first terms as Gov. Scott Walker. Within weeks of taking office, the governor set off widespread protests at the Capitol with a proposal to strip collective-bargaining rights from unions representing state workers. Faculty members who had unionized were among the fiercest opponents of the move.
Not long afterward, Governor Walker endorsed a plan to split the state’s flagship campus, in Madison, from the rest of the university system. The plan, which was opposed by the system’s chancellor, would have given the campus more autonomy from state regulation in exchange for less state money. The idea was shelved by the state Legislature.
The state’s Republican Party then got involved by seeking emails from a university professor who had criticized the governor. That request drew accusations that the party was trying to squelch academic freedom with a political witch hunt.
The governor was also among critics who decried the size of the university system’s budget surplus. He called for a tuition freeze and sought to scale back state appropriations to the system as a way to force the institutions to reduce the surplus.
Mary Burke, the governor’s Democratic opponent, has criticized the higher-ed budget cuts that have taken place on Governor Walker’s watch. She says that more than 40,000 students have been denied need-based financial aid because of the lack of money from the state.
Ms. Burke, a former state secretary of commerce and former executive at the Trek Bicycle Corporation, doesn’t necessarily oppose freezing tuition, but she has called for more state appropriations for higher education to offset the freeze. She also wants to create a program to allow the state’s students to refinance their loans.
Pennsylvania: Shocking Higher-Ed Cuts
In his first budget proposal, in 2011, Gov. Tom Corbett proposed a 50-percent cut in appropriations for higher education, shocking college leaders and even rankling many legislators with state universities in their districts.
The governor said his cuts—which, if enacted, would have been reportedly the biggest one-time percentage cut in state higher-education money in history—were necessary to balance the state’s budget without raising taxes.
State legislators, however, ended up paring public-college spending by only 19 percent that year.
In his next budget, however, Governor Corbett was back at it. He proposed 30-percent cuts for the three “state-related” institutions—Pennsylvania State and Temple Universities and the University of Pittsburgh—and 20-percent cuts for each of the 14 state-owned universities, in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education. State legislators again rejected the governor’s cuts and kept appropriations at the same level as the previous year.
Meanwhile, the governor appointed a committee to advise him on how colleges should be financed and how they could better serve the needs of the state’s employers. Since then, few if any of the report’s recommendations have been carried out, in part because of a lack of state money.
Tom Wolf, the Democratic challenger, is heavily favored to unseat Governor Corbett. Mr. Wolf has focused his higher-education agenda on supporting military veterans with more support services and charging them in-state tuition rates.
Mr. Wolf, a businessman and former secretary of the state’s Department of Revenue, is also proposing to charge in-state tuition to some children brought to the United States illegally, along with more financial assistance for low-income students.
