Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Dismal would be an improvement

John Hinderaker at Powerline noticed that outgoing University of Minnesota President Robert Bruininks is unhappy about his final operating budget, which he called "dismal." Hinderaker asks a question:

Well, if the budget is "dismal" it must be getting cut, right? How big a decline would it take for you to say that your family's budget is "dismal" and "disappointing?" Ten percent? Twenty?

If I had to take a 20% cut, that would hurt a lot. So what's happening to the budget for the University of Minnesota system? Hinderaker offers some numbers:

Here are the University's budget numbers for the fiscal years starting in 2000, according to the Univeristy's own web sites:




FY 2000: $1,816,000,000

FY 2001: $1,886,000,000

FY 2002: $2,005,000,000

FY 2003: $2,118,000,000

FY 2004: $2,098,000,000

FY 2005: $2,201,000,000

FY 2006: $2,368,000,000

FY 2007: $2,532,000,000

FY 2008: $2,747,000,000

FY 2009: $2,902,000,000

FY 2010: $2,900,000,000

FY 2011: $3,400,000,000

FY 2012: $3,700,000,000



So the University's own numbers indicate that the "dismal" and "disappointing" FY 2012 budget represents a $300 million, 8.8% increase over FY 2011. Will your family's budget rise by 9% next year? Probably not.
Yeah, I'd absolutely take such a dismal result for my family budget. Here's the secret, kids: the only way any governmental organization would consider itself "fully funded" is if it had all your money.

5 comments:

W.B. Picklesworth said...

This is all about manipulating their core constituency. I've got family who is salaried public university in MN and his paycheck is threatened by what's going on. [Now he's a lib, but his wife (my sister) isn't.] Who's fault is it? I'll give you one guess. The Left is happy to make people suffer in real life if only they can help them in the abstract.

Bike Bubba said...

Looks like it's time to balance the budget by telling the U that there will be no remedial courses offered; fully 1/3 of incoming freshmen require them, and only about 13% of those who take them ever graduate. You could theoretically cut a billion from the annual budget that way.

Mr. D said...

Absolutely, WBP.

Looks like it's time to balance the budget by telling the U that there will be no remedial courses offered

Tough love, Bubba -- sounds like Bruininks would benefit from taking a remedial math course. Maybe he could take the course at a lesser institution of learning like Beloit College. ;)

Bike Bubba said...

I'm thinking Bruininks' problem isn't with mathematics, but with ethics, gracious host. It's not ethical to describe an 8% hike in funding as dismal, nor is it ethical to continually accept students who realistically have no chance of graduating.

How's Beloit's ethics program? :^)

Mr. D said...

I'm thinking Bruininks' problem isn't with mathematics, but with ethics, gracious host. It's not ethical to describe an 8% hike in funding as dismal, nor is it ethical to continually accept students who realistically have no chance of graduating.

I'd agree with both statements, BB.

How's Beloit's ethics program? :^)

Situational, of course.