It’s great that Bob McDonnell’s commission on this subject is coming out today with a call for “‘landmark higher education legislation’ to put Virginia on a path toward increasing degree attainment, providing stable funding for public institutions and making college more affordable and accessible to state students.” The question, as always, is how Virginia’s going to pay for this, particularly given Gov. McDonnell et al’s near-theological aversion to raising revenues, aka “taxes.” Also, I love how the commission’s interim report “won’t assign costs to its recommendations,” and also how the long-term funding model “won’t be ready when the General Assembly convenes in January.”
In other words, this sounds like the education version of the liquor privatization fiasco, the offshore oil drilling fiasco, etc., etc. I hope I’m wrong about this, but frankly, until Republican’ts start getting a lot more pragmatic about the core function of government, which is to raise revenues and spend money, I can’t see anything productive happening in any area. Until then, it’s all magical thinking, smoke and mirrors, and nothing more.
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