The education budget was the first order of business to appear before the state Senate when it convened for its last day, Monday morning at 10 a.m. It ended up being the only order of business and after 14 hours of debate, the budget failed when the Senate was forced to adjourn its Regular Session at midnight. While many issues contributed to the budget's failure, the unwillingness of Senate leaders to reduce the drastic cuts to the state's four-year colleges and universities by $25 million is blamed for the budget's demise. Those in opposition to reducing the cuts to the senior institutions blame us for killing the budget and hurting K-12. The real problem stems from the fact that, from the beginning, the colleges and universities were being asked to absorb a disproportionate share of the cuts.

Senators opposed to reducing the cuts to colleges and universities railed on after the budget's failure claiming that it was a "sad day" for Alabama and that the special interests had won, implying that higher education was some type of misguided special interest group. The truth is, it is a "sad day" when state leaders see higher education as a special interest and not as an integral part of the state's education system. One lawmaker was heard to say the disproportionate share of cuts to higher education is appropriate because in Alabama "higher education is a luxury."

Now, the Governor will have to call a Special Session to address the education budget. Hopefully, some time will pass before the Special Session to allow tempers to cool and for possible compromises to emerge.

Southwest Alabama senators supporting our position to reduce the cuts were Senators Ben Brooks, Rusty Glover and Trip Pittman. Please be sure to thank them.

One factor driving proponents of reducing the cuts to colleges and universities is the fact that Alabama's senior institutions are facing the highest budget cuts in the nation. The budget that appeared before the Senate Monday would have reduced funding to Alabama's senior institutions by 11.2%. Only a few other states are cutting colleges and universities at all and most are in the single digits.