Why did Gov. Corbett make like Lizzie Borden and give 40 whacks to the budgets for state-owned and state-related universities?
It was the largest cut of any state-funded program. (Overall, the governor proposes lowering state spending by 3.1 percent.)
At part of a regular column I do for the Fels Institute of Government at Penn, I analyze the governor's proposal and try to make sense of it. It isn't easy. There is little he said in his speech or budget document that gives any reason for such deep cuts.
Charles Zogby, Corbett's budget secretary, told the Senate Appropriations Committee recently that the new administration is not backing away from state support for higher education (except, apparently, in paying for it.)
My current theory is that Corbett was looking to make serious cuts somewhere. He just didn't know where. So, he rolled the wheel and the clicker stopped at HIGHER ED. So there the cuts were made.
The Fels piece is titled: Taking the Axe to High Ed.
By the way, that's a picture of Lizzie Borden, who gave her father 40- whacks and when she saw what she had done gave her mother 41. Lizzie was convicted in verse, but acquitted of the double murder by a jury in
-- Tom Ferrick