Posted on 06/08/2007 8:12:51 AM PDT by george76
Colorado's public colleges and universities face a "severe" funding crisis for campus buildings, according to a report released Thursday by state officials.
The state's colleges and universities will need as much as $3 billion in funding to build, repair and replace campus buildings over the next five years.
During the 2007-08 fiscal year, which begins July 1, higher education will get $142.3 million for projects - nearly double what it got in the previous year.
"Clearly this indicates the success of higher education in receiving capital funding this year," according to a report delivered Thursday to the Colorado Commission on Higher Education. "However, due to five years of little or no capital funding, the situation remains severe."
Romanoff said he has approached Gov. Bill Ritter's administration with a request to work on a proposal for funding school and college buildings in addition to road projects.
Ritter has already convened a commission to study funding for the state's roads. That commission's recommendations could include options that relieve the Transportation Department's claim on some current revenue used for construction projects.
(Excerpt) Read more at denverpost.com ...
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Nice :
While serving on an “advisory council” for the dean of engineering of a nearby state university, he presented his plans to improve the school by constructing a “much needed” building that would cost $50 million.
The first thought that crossed my mind was to puzzle over the entire life-cycle cost of this building in relationship to how many students it would serve over the decades it would be “much needed”. When you divide $50 million by 1000 students per year, you come up with a lot of years. Assuming a 50 year life and a $100 million total life cycle cost, that building costs $2,000 per student-year.
To be fair to the cost of education, we must add the cost of physical plant in some manner to the ongoing annual cost of their education. The difference between tuition and this total must be made up somewhere, and in State schools that lack a big endowment fund, the taxpayers foot this bill somehow, somewhere.
I made the mistake of asking the Dean in a meeting if he knew how much it cost to educate one of his undergrad students. He didn’t know, but he had a study by someone else at some other school that showed how much it cost there.
This is such a simple question, but excuse me, it must be asked. We are spending so very much in public education at all levels and getting less and less.
Needless to say, my impertinent question was a public embarrassment to the Dean and I was not invited to serve on his Advisory Council again.
Electing Democrats result in consequences beyond the mislead claims of there not being a difference between Democrats and Republicans. I don’t believe there is a shortage of funds for education, period. We pay and pay and certainly don’t receive many benefits from taxpayer largess.
This is happening in Kansas too. The state universities are whining because their buildings are falling down. I wonder what they have been doing with all the money they already receive from taxpayers? Seems to me that some of it could be used for building repair.
I calculated that our public kindergarten costs $26k/student/year.
Startling, isn’t it?
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
The University of Colorado has raised a record $125 million in donations this fiscal year...
The old record was $93 million, set in 2000...
Phil Anschutz’s Anschutz Foundation gave $25 million to CU’s medical campus in Aurora...
The CU Foundation alone has brought in $93 million, a 76 percent increase over all of last year...
http://www.longmontfyi.com/latest-news.asp?ID=16793
Why do we need so many buildings for colleges, when people can take classes by watching a video from their laptop?
Thanks for the list.
Colleges are swimming in money, but are not allowed to show a profit or a surplus in their accounting. They bury the money in property so as not to get their budgets reduced. It’s all a freaking scam.
Yep. Follow the $$$.
They would love to get steal the road money too.
Colleges have plenty of money. They are using it to pay excessive salaries to useless administrators and to worthless professors instead of using it to maintain the infrastructure of the college.
Let them raise tuition, or close the buildings.
Don’t the pols always raid the road fund when they have a pet project?
They hate roads, so they always want to steal CDOT’s money.
Well, SUV’s use roads, therefore they must be evil. :-))
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