Excellence in Higher Education

Kansas Governor Mark Parkinson delivered a sharp message yesterday to the board that oversees higher education in the state: Shape Up. Change Priorities. Set Higher Goals. Achieve Better Results. Specifically, Parkinson told the Kansas Board of Regents that:

All of us take pride in the rankings of our football and basketball teams. We talk endlessly about these teams when they succeed, and sulk when they drop out of the top 10 in the country. We would not be satisfied if we didn’t have a single sports team in the top 90; so why are we satisfied that we don’t have a single University in the top 90? I’m not satisfied. It’s far more important to me that we have a university academically in the top 20 than that we have a basketball or football team in the top 20.

Parkinson acknowledged that higher education, along with the rest of the state, has been side tracked by recent financial problems. But he noted that higher education plays a vital role in shaping our state's future:

You are in a remarkable position to not only improve our educational system, but improve the state. I hope you appreciate the impact you can have statewide. For example, if you make the right decisions and become part of the solution to our workforce training challenge, you will boost the Kansas economy. If you make the right decisions and KU receives National Cancer Institute designation, you will improve the quality of cancer care throughout the Midwest, which will save thousands of lives. If you make the right decisions and improve retention and graduation rates for our students, you will save tens of thousands of students the misery of a failed education, wasted spending and a lost career.

What specific results would Parkinson want to see?

At least one national university in the top 50
A second university ranked in the top 100
No Kansas institution is in the 4th tier
Improve rankings for specialty programs
The KU law school and medical school should be in the top 50
K-State veterinarian school should be in the top 10
All of our engineering schools should be in the top 100
Analyze the possibility of developing a dental school at Wichita State
Improve retention and graduation rates above the norm for peer institutions and above the national norm

This is a bold move by the governor. It's the first time in recent history - or at least within the last 40 years - that any elected official challenged the priorities of higher education in Kansas by offering a concrete set of common sense objectives. But will it work? Parkinson's term ends in January 2010, so he's a lame duck. So the fate of this plan is in the hands of the state's universities and Board of Regents.

Maybe Governor Parkinson should rethink his retirement plan.