While it may bring hardship to some, the Government is correct in reducing the subsidy provided to the College of The Bahamas.
In case we're not looking, the country is now in debt to the tune of approximately $5 billion.
Assuming our total population is 350,000, that's $14,285 per person.
If we divide it among a working population of say 150,000. That's about $33,000 each.
These numbers are astounding and worsening with each passing year, so something has to be done.
Sure it sounds cold hearted, but either the government starts to find ways to cut back expenditures or we all might have a much higher price to pay. Cyprus comes to mind.
While we did not borrow the money, we have been duped into believing government comes at no cost to us as taxpayers because of all the borrowing that has transpired over the past 40 years.
The question is, will government stick to its guns and cut back in other places or is this the typical political trial balloon?
Another thing the government should do is pass a Constitutional Amendment restricting deficits and borrowing and a balanced budget.
It seems just a short while ago that most people had to work to pay their way through college. Today we take it for granted our way should be subsidised.
Where did we go wrong?
There aren't many policies of government that I support, but this is one.
Like I suggested Rick, a triage of sorts is needed.
I could not disagree with you more strongly that the sole and struggling tertiary level institution in the country should receive less Government funding. I do concur, however, in your call for “cut back(s) in other places” but that is the point of my ‘triage’ approach: We do not need a $200m Parliament Building nor should we have spent $400K on a 30-second commercial at Super Bowl XLVII … the list can go on).
But it is self-contradictory at best and hypocritical at worst, to argue for an expansion of skills in our work force (Doctors Hospital article) on the one hand and then support reductions in higher education funding, on the other!
How do you reconcile these opposing positions?
Education, particularly at the tertiary level is critical to our national skills development.
As I pointed out on Facebook and Twitter yesterday and my blog going live later this morning,”The concentrated benefits (COB students in this case) and dispersed costs among all citizens, is simply unfair to the general public that is on the hook for the taxes.”
Not only that, COB has some of the smartest Bahamians in the country on its faculty, surely they can come up with some revenue streams to help deserving students?
How about a fund like minded people and Alumni can donate to to support those deserving students?
How about starting a newspaper/magazine to sell ads for revenue to do the same?
The state has run its subsidy course unless it gets its fiscal house in order!
As for being self-contradictory or hypocritical because of the skills shortage. Our educational issues relating to a skills shortage starts in kindergarten and continues through primary and high schools so we do not even get sufficient people wanting to pursue or able to fulfill the requirements of those jobs. Many of them are even entry level.
I could not disagree with you more on this notion of the our government not seeking to educate it citizens as it is so needed.
Most Bahamians are still products of families that have maybe one or two persons who have gone beyond high school education and as such struggle to qualify themselves to get a job that really pays. The key is not always higher education but the key is opportunity.
Most of the wealth in this country is at the top and when you look at it, lots of Bahamians are left out for reasons that seems unfair. What is needed is a government trust that sees that every single Bahamian who has the desire and the ability to enroll and perform well in higher education has the opportunity to do so.
For far too long the divide has been the have’s and the have not…..This is my view and it is held by the fact that I see too many of our citizens who otherwise can contribute lost to the further development of this country are left out of … simply because a lack of financial resources to advance they personal development.
This is not an socialist stands this is the right way for our government to move until we have achieve an fully educated population.
This is my sincere view and my prayer that it be done and carried out forth with cause the majority of our citizens will always be left out..
Thanks Peter.
You are mixing emotional rhetoric in with the conversation.
Here’s a few thoughts.
“…in the eight years of government budgets from 2004/2005 to 2011/2012 the country has spent almost $2 billion on education. This includes funds spent on, The Department of Education, The Ministry of Education, The College of The Bahamas, The Bahamas Vocational Technical Institute, The Simpson Penn Centre for Boys, The Willamae Pratt Centre for Girls and The Department of Archives.”
“Believe it or not, when compared to the USA, Sweden, Canada, China and Japan, The Bahamas ranks second in expenditure on Education.”
See charts in the link below.
http://www.weblogbahamas.com/blog_bahamas/2012/03/did-you-say-double-education-expenditure-for-what.html
We need a cost benefit analysis to determine how we can get value for money with our education expenditures.
Rick,
I appreciate all attempts to eschew ‘statism’ and your innovative thinking in identifying alternative sources of funding, but as your man Hayek said, one of the roles of Government is “to finance schools and research”.
This is a government function, plain and simple, and if we ever get our priorities right, it will come to the fore of all public debate to ensure that we do right when it comes to arming our citizens with the one weapon they (and we) need to compete: EDUCATION!
P.S. As for ‘smartest Bahamians’, I suggest we start looking overseas to the growing number that is effectively competing in advanced economies the world over :):)
S3S, it’s an accepted fact that government will fund education in general, but wasting precious tax dollars because we think spending other people money is a good thing is worrisome. Particularly when we consider your role in education.
I am talking about revenue streams to assist people in need. The country is in serious financial straights and must consider ways to solve the problem.
Is the increase at COB excessive for most students there? I think not.
Maybe budget cuts will force some introspection and find ways to spend their allocation more wisely. Business has faced this dilemma for the last five years.
Our biggest failing is at the kindergarten, primary and high school levels.
Here we go again.. None of us or for that matter any rational thinking man is opposed to greater education.. The issue nevertheless is plain and simple, given the limited financial resources that government has for discretionary expenditures we are on a course moving quickly towards insolvency.. If that be our destiny, then there will be little if any money left over after we pay our debt service for educational sending.. We are heading into a sea of debt crisis where the debtor countries of the world can only print more money hoping to put off the final day of reconciliation..
Government must recognize this predicament and begin to carefully prioritize spending so that the basic functions of government can be performed.. We are an overextended economy similar to America where the ship-of-state is sinking in a sea of endless debt.. Prudent measures must be introduced by government so deficit spending can be significantly reduced and our debt burden can decrease as well.. Then and only then will we be in a financial position to allocate more needed resources to educational system..
By the way S3S you are correct, Hayek did support government spending on education and research, but only when economies were in basic surplus.. I doubt that he could ever imagine the massive deficit positions in which the so-called “developed nations” of the world finds themselves in today..
Perhaps there is something that can learned from Hillsdale College, the only institution of higher learning in the United States that I know of that has never accepted any government funding or subsidies.. Perhaps the COB administration should take note as there may be something to gain from the Hillsdale experience..
Ahh, and when the well from which all subsidies come dries up………
Who then will we rail against?
Who then should fund the thousands of “deserving” causes and programs?
Government can only distribute what they first appropriate.
When the State assumed responsibility for educating our youth, Parents stood back and said fine,
but what kind of job did the State do?
Are we teeming with bright, energetic, innovative, forward thinking, doers?
I think not.
They all left town and country, and didn’t come back.
and what content now qualifies as a curriculum?
We may have intelligent people lecturing at C.O.B. but even the most intelligent can be idiotic in some regards.
However, we are damn good at shooting the messenger,
unless the messenger is a politician,
In which case we worship and fawn before their wisdom…