Heading into the budget season, the incredible story of the Research Triangle seems overshadowed by the looming budget deficit — nearly $4 billion. And in a time when everyone seems to be hurting, higher learning looks like a tempting luxury to cut.
The only way for our school and system to spare the quality of education here is for our leaders — students and administrators — to articulate a difficult message: Investment in higher education is likely a better deficit reduction tool than cutting.
Fortunately, North Carolina’s story is especially conducive to this argument. It’s one that N.C. State University professor Art Padilla made two days ago for the Chronicle of Higher Education when defending state investment in universities.
His argument that continued investment in education infrastructure during the tough times of the 1970s sowed the seeds of prosperity is especially salient to our current dilemma.
And indeed, Research Triangle Park stands as the ultimate symbol of the potential of public-private partnerships among the best in education and entrepreneurship. More than 50 years ago, it was mostly empty land and tobacco farms, and the state had the lowest per-capital income in the nation.
It’s why a federal government grant to the N.C. State statistics department spawned the best company in America to work for (again): SAS. Imagine that.
But the argument hardly need be purely anecdotal. Empirical evidence also suggests positive returns.
The current crop of legislators likely subscribes to a theory of economics that views government spending multipliers unfavorably. Fine.
A 2009 economic impact study of the benefits of the UNC system showed an increase of $9.65 in private income and $1.37 in public revenue for every dollar spent on the system — before multiplier effects.
