I recently had the opportunity to sit down and chat with Rep. Lois Kolkhorst about her bill, HB 2504, which would improve higher education transparency.
She was spot-on in her assessment of the current transparency deficiencies at our state’s public universities. And she would know – Rep. Kolkhorst formerly chaired the education subcommittee on appropriations, which oversees all the funding to our universities.
“These are publicly funded universities, and there are complaints that we don’t give them enough money,” she said, “But I can tell you that through general appropriations and tuition from students, we are paying a lot of money to fund education.”
The truth is that there is not nearly enough transparency in higher education. Without transparency, how can we know where all our money is going? Well, we can’t.
There is not enough transparency in place to ensure universities are being held accountable for their spending. Kolkhorst’s HB 2504 could help change this, as it would require universities to post course budgets, syllabi, and curriculum vitae online.
– Elizabeth Young