Step away from the pie

SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher came to town this week to talk about leaky pipes, specifically New York’s leaky education pipeline. The crisis of the week is “too many people falling out of a leaky pipeline“, better translated as a crisis with SUNY’s leaky funding line, I suspect.

After less than a year here, Nancy has developed a deep concern for New York’s high school dropouts and adults who never graduated, a problem that can, of course, only be solved by more SUNY funding.

Nancy, here’s a little economics lesson for you. New York’s economy can best be described as a shrinking pie. Every piece that you get, means less for someone else.

New York already has an great system in place to support life long learning. Its often called the Peoples’ University or the Public Library. It is an excellent, COST EFFECTIVE way for people to learn just about anything they want. And unlike SUNY, everyone who applies can get in.

While SUNY is dealing with budget cuts, the Peoples’ U funding is being devastated. So Nancy, put down that piece of pie, from the looks of you (and SUNY) you really don’t need it.