With Texas facing a massive budget shortfall, a majority of voters want state lawmakers to consider cuts to colleges and universities while improving the quality of education, according to a poll released today.
The poll, commissioned by the conservative group Texas Public Policy Foundation and conducted by Baselice & Associates, found that 71 percent say public colleges could improve how they teach students while reducing operating costs.
Asked about what they would prefer to cut if institutions end up with smaller budgets, 53 percent of voters said they would prefer to reduce administrative overhead when choosing between various places to cut budgets, such as requiring professors to do less research, increasing class size and freezing faculty pay.
The poll showed voters, by an 87 percent margin, said the "purpose of a university" is educating students to prepare for careers, rather than conducting research led by professors to create new knowledge. The poll also shows that 73 percent of voters would support merit based pay for professors based on how many students they teach.
The Baselice & Associates, Inc., run by Republican pollster Michael Baselice, polled 800 registered voters at random from November 7-9.
"The quality of education delivered should be a top priority at all colleges and universities," said Justin Keener, Texas Public Policy foundation spokesman. "Evaluating the performance and effectiveness of faculty and universities will help decision-makers and university governing boards make informed decisions on improving our higher education system to best educate and prepare our state's future generations."
Source: http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2010/12/voters-consider-higher-ed-budg.html
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