Chancellor Gearhart: More money needed to compete

UA Chancellor David Gearhart made a swing through Texarkana yesterday to talk to alums and to pitch his "students first" agenda. As part of his speech, he made it clear that the UofA is in dire need of additional funding from the Legislature to the tune of about $40 million annually. Upon questioning, he said the university is going to be neutral on the lottery proposal.

This is probably a call for the trustees rather than the chancellor, but here we have a proposal on the table that will support higher education and take care of the university's needs, and the state's colleges and universities have so far declined to carry the banner to try and get this thing passed. Perhaps they've seen poll numbers that show they don't need to help, or maybe it's viewed as too volatile of an issue, but each Arkansas college/university has a database of Arkansans to contact that would make the most capable of political machines jealous.

If the lottery proposal fails, the Legislature will be lobbied to raise/allocate millions in additional revenue to higher education to (1) help students with tuition and (2) the renovation of buildings, which just happens to coincide with both the top two priorities of our colleges/universities and the Scholarship Lottery Amendment. Meanwhile, people here in Texarkana will continue to educate Texans by purchasing lottery tickets and sending all of our money to Austin. If there's a better idea out there to improve higher education in Arkansas by building an educated and local workforce and creating more competitive colleges and universities without raising your taxes, let's hear it.