Stoke higher ed's engine

One of the most exciting programs to emerge from the 2006 Legislature was USTAR, the Utah Science Technology and Research initiative. The overall goal of USTAR is to bolster the state's economy with high-paying jobs resulting from the commercialization of university research. USTAR funding would be used to recruit top-drawer researchers, construct research facilities and fund the activities of research teams.

According to USTAR estimates, this approach could eventually create more than 400 companies employing some 123,000 people, which translates into $5 billion in new state tax revenue. It's mind-boggling, isn't it?

To achieve these ambitious goals, the Utah Legislature must gird the program's underpinnings — state colleges and universities that will produce tomorrow's scientists, physicians and researchers. It must take pro-active steps to ensure Utah's best and brightest minds can afford college studies and have an opportunity to complete their college studies in a timely manner.

The state's higher education system is asking lawmakers to make a greater investment in Utah's college students. Higher education leaders want the Utah Legislature to join them in a 75-25 venture. The state would pay 75 percent of the cost of a student's college education with the student paying the remaining 25 percent. Currently, students shoulder about 35 percent of the costs.

This proposal makes sense on several levels. First, it would help relieve the cost of attending state institutions. In recent years, students have been saddled with steadily increasing college tuitions. Some higher education officials believe the rising costs of going to college require students to work while they go to school, which postpones their eventual graduation. Others elect to leave college before they finish school to enter the workforce.

Second, it would be a meaningful investment in the system. Among students who attend college, most go to colleges and universities in their home state. These young men and women are tomorrow's leaders, executives and innovators. It seems to follow that graduating from a Utah institution would increase the likelihood that they would become part of the workforce in their home state.

State lawmakers must also heed the system's plea for student financial aid. State need-based financial aid has fallen far behind tuition hikes and the numbers of students who would qualify for such assistance. Each year, 70,000 Utah student who qualify for federal financial aid don't get help.

While many loan programs are available, students are faced with very difficult choices. Either they have to work during college to pay school expenses — which places college completion on the back burner — or they graduate with sizable debt.

To make the USTAR initiative work, it only makes sense that lawmakers make a sizable and long-overdue investment in the state's colleges and universities as well as students who will fuel what Utahns hope will be USTAR's many engines.