The Cooperative Extension Service and land grant universities across the country are taking budget hits. She probably doesn't remember it, but Congresswoman Kristi Noem has already voted to cut millions from the USDA's research, education, and extension budget. Her House GOP colleagues want to cut another $35 million from the current $294 million in federal support for Extension in the coming fiscal year.
The situation is compounded by deep state budget cuts here in South Dakota. In conjunction with (and mourning for?) the first day of South Dakota's new fiscal year of austerity, State Reps. Frank Kloucek (D-19/Scotland) and Peggy Gibson (D-22/Huron) held a press conference in Sioux Falls to highlight the fact that the state is shooting itself in the economic development foot by reducing its investment in research and education.
Rep. Kloucek sees the budget cuts worsening rural brain drain:
This is the biggest brain drain on the youth and educated adults in South Dakota since the closing of USD Springfield. The lose of jobs in every county in the state, the loss of experiment farm research and quality non bias research, the end of quality soils and plant pathology testing and many other factors make this a bad move by the Board of Regents and SDSU. We shall and must do better for the people of South Dakota [Rep. Frank Kloucek, press release, 2011.07.01].
Rep. Gibson agrees that these cuts hidner economic development. She also finds it foolish that the state is not placing one of its eight new consolidated regional Extension centers in Huron, which is home to Gibson and the State Fair:
As a 4H photography judge and instructor I understand the education component of 4H. 4H supports rural communities. Huron should be considered as a regional extension center because Huron is a hub for agriculture and home of the South Dakota State Fair. I oppose cutting extension because of the education and research services provided tour rural communities. Extension provides vital information to our rural and urban communities. Cutting funding to these programs will cripple agriculture. Unemployment by cuts in research and education is not a way to grow our economy. I believe education is a great way to grow South Dakota [from Kloucek's press release, 2011.07.01].
SDSU officials are sighing and accepting these harmful cuts as a done deal. Both Provost Laurie Nichols and Extension's Kayla Trautmann have dutifully adopted Governor Daugaard's language about the "new norm."
But I continue to appreciate the dogged determination of Reps. Kloucek and Gibson not to accept what is as what ought to be. Kloucek and Gibson led off in May with a questions on the legality of these budget cuts. The Attorney General and the feds ruled these cuts are legal, but that's not stopping Kloucek and Gibson from sounding the alarm and trying to build support for restoring our investment in education next year.
The state budget may be a done deal, but the additional cuts the House GOP wants to impose on Extension have yet to pass the Senate. If you share the concerns of Kloucek, Gibson, and other supporters of 4-H, SDSU, and rural economic development, consider calling Senators Thune and Johnson and urging them not to make a bad situation worse.
I drove past SDSU just last night. There seem to be a huge number of construction project going on for an agricultural college that is facing cuts to its funding.
We are one month away from a US default. Funding ag extension will be the least of our worries.
If you look into the budget, Michael, you'll find that those buildings are built by an unusual proportion of private dollars and student tuition money. I have heard that South Dakota does a uniquely bad job of putting taxpayer support behind the infrastructure needs of the school. Even the new sports facilities the Regents just approved will be funded largely (entirely?) through non-state dollars. So are you proposing that we should shift the burden for funding extension and research to students and private donors as well? Should we just completely privatize SDSU and let the state off the hook completely?
I am saying that in August, there will be no money for students to fill those new buildings. No federal money and no financial aid = no students.
Minnesota has taught the feds a lesson: you don't have to compromise. The world will not end because of a lack of funding of services. It's too bad politicians worry only about being re-elected instead of passing a budget.
The only uncertainty is how much financial carnage a US default will affect the national and world economy. The world bankers are deeply concerned about the debt problems in Greece. If a very small economy as Greece can threaten to topple banks, imagine what will happen when investors realize that the US will not pay it's obligations.
Higher education's been in a financial bubble for decades - only second to that of health care insurance and its costs. It's long past time it popped. Every year they raise tuition, fees, costs far greater than the rate of inflation. It's unsustainable. Apparently the math of sustainability eludes the regents, university presidents, and the legislature.
Second, no one's shown how regionalizing the out-of-date extension service will impinge upon modern agri-business. It also appears that the last thing agri-business needs is more socialism from more subsidies.
Third, the brain-drain isn't happening - it happened.
The US debt ceiling debate is a fraud. The 14th amendment requires federal debt to be paid there can be no default. The GOP is trying to hold the country hostage but will ultimately fail because what they propose, the US to default on its obligations, is unconstitutional.
Right now the US does not run on a formal budget but rather on a set on continuing resolutions. The Tea Party Republicans were elected on a platform of no new taxes and not increasing the debt ceiling. By the time a court would find the actions of Congress unconstitutional, the US will already be in default and our economy in shambles.
Whether you are democrat or republican, you have better prepare your plan to deal with the financial nightmare that will only get worse. The gov't actually reached the debt limit a while ago. The treasury department has used accounting tricks to delay the default while politicians blow hot air.
We need to make dramatic cuts now, not after the damage has been done.
I'm no expert on Extension Service offices, but it seems like there has been one in every county for nearly a century. Could it be that with the advent of the automobile, the telephone, electricity and the internet, we can consolidate the information distributed via extension offices into regional information centers at a lower overall cost? 4H is basically a parental driven program, a great program, but I don't think 4H is going to go away on a local basis simply because extension offices consolidate and streamline according to modern needs.
Dang, Rod: it's kind of like grocery stores and downtown retail: every small town used to have them, but now thanks to the automobile culture, we've consolidated retail in a few regional hubs. Next up, the final great consolidation of school districts to the top 10 cities? (I'm not arguing, I'm just wondering!)
Nick is right. Our nation has a Constitutional obligation to honor its debts. There's no option, hence no GOP leverage. That said, Ron Paul has an interesting idea here. It seems $1.6 trillion of our debt is money we owe ourselves. Maybe we should just tear up that paper and give ourselves some breathing room.
http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/4h96id/www.tnr.com/article/politics/91224/ron-paul-debt-ceiling-federal-reserve
If one looks at the cuts of the extension service from the larger perspective of the trends of education, they are just one more assault on public education by those who want to education to be a privilege that defines a ruling class. The extension service was a direct growth of the Land Grant College Act, which was formulated out of the belief in and desire for public education. It has always had its opponents, as it South Dakota where it was resented by those who complained about "armchair farmers telling us what to do." Still, the knowledge and methods of agriculture developed by our colleges of agriculture were disseminated through the extension service and made American agriculture the model of the world. 4-H and home economics extension had an equivalent effect.
For many decades, the extension services have been concerned about how meet the needs of a population that is urban or, at least, urban-centered. A long time ago, I covered a meeting at which University of Illinois professors and extension people were pondering ways they could extend their efforts to the inner cities.
The national debt has become the vehicle for reversion to the class systems America was founded to escape and the re-establishment of old feudalities that defines so much of neo-conservatism.
I am not able to understand where the 'heck' Mr. Black is coming from, but the damage has been done. Two unfunded wars, sir. Yes, we have an economic problem in that entitlements payments are more than our current economy is able to fund through growth, but, what about the inequities between the richest and the poorest of our citizens? Only a few of the richest could go to another country with his/her capital and make a larger return on their capital, in my opinion. My bet is most of those wealthy would be eaten alive in the markets of Asia if they had to compete. Your statement ignores the fact that the wealthiest are getting way too much of the spoils in this country. Yes, we need to reduce wasteful spending, but how can you not see that a tax system that has been extremely favorable to the wealthiest, AND two unfunded wars, has put this country on the course we now find outselves? Yes, we need changes, but look at the history of the past ten years and the BUSH administration's f'ups.
I would really like to know: does the tea party look at history and failures of previous leadership when they assess what must be done for the positive future of OUR country?
Get ready for the "Great McConnell-Boehner World Economic crash of 2011".
"South Dakota where it was resented by those who complained about “armchair farmers telling us what to do.â€
Could be an exact quote of something my deceased mother in law said..again and again and again.