(The Center Square) – Republican lawmakers on the study committee looking at the future of the University of Wisconsin want to know what Wisconsin families are getting for the $1.3 billion the state currently spends on the university, and what they should expect if the state spends more.
Lawmakers questioned UW President Jay Rothman at his appearance at Thursday’s hearing in front of the Legislative Council Study Committee on the Future of the University of Wisconsin System.
“We want to support the system, but at the same time there’s an accountability factor. And what we’re hearing from people in Wisconsin is there’s a lack of trust,” Rep. Amanda Nedweski, R-Pleasant Prairie, told Rothman.
The Study Committee is tasked with coming up with solutions for lawmakers to vote on sometime next year that will help put the University of Wisconsin in a better position.
Rothman once again told the committee the UW needs more money, needs to bring in more students and needs to stabilize the finances at many of its campuses.
“But I also, with all due respect, can’t look past the fact that we’re 43rd out of 50 in terms of our support for our universities,” Rothman said. “That just seems to be un-Wisconsin-like.”
Nedweski and other Republicans were clear in their criticism of the UW, its enrollment decline over the past several years and that many young people are choosing not to go to college.
“I’m not sure how I can come back to my constituents and the taxpayer and say the University of Wisconsin needs to continue to operate at the same spending level when they have less people to serve,” Nedweski added. “People are saying ‘what do they want money for if they have less people? What do they need money for?’”
Rohtman has framed past questions about university spending in terms of a “war for talent.”
On Thursday, he said many of the jobs of the future will require college degrees.
“The Wisconsin Policy Forum did something recently that said over half of the jobs that they believe will be created in Wisconsin with an annual salary of $50,000 or more will require a college degree,” Rothman told the committee. “Ninety percent of the jobs that are $75,000 or more will require college.”
Nedweski said the jobs she’s seeing don’t support that.
“My son’s friends from high school who just graduated are making $50,000 as assistant managers at KwikTrip. They don’t need a college degree,” Nedweski added. “What’s the job of the future? Well, they’re still going to be Kwik Trips, well God I sure hope there is, because I can’t live without them.”
The Study Committee is expected to meet over the next several months, and eventually have something for lawmakers to vote on sometime next year.
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