EDITORIAL
Top-notch education does not come cheap

This past election campaign rang with the bipartisan realization that Hawai'i's economic success depends largely on the ability of the University of Hawai'i to evolve into a top-tier educational institution to provide the brain trust for industries from high-tech to diversified agriculture.

"The university is a critical player in Hawai'i's economic future. From the standpoint of our people, there is no better investment opportunity in town than the University of Hawai'i," Gov.-elect Linda Lingle wrote in her "A New Beginning" campaign booklet.

But in education — as in healthcare — you generally get what you pay for. So we're interested to know whether Lingle and the incoming state Legislature will see fit to add the extra $100 million needed to make the necessary upgrades in higher education, including faculty salary hikes.

UH President Evan Dobelle and the Board of Regents figure they need a 21.3 percent increase in next year's operating budget to make the system competitive, along the lines of the University of California at Berkeley or University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

It seems like a tall order, but it's really not when you consider that the hike would return UH's share of the state budget to 11 percent, which is where it hovered in 1994.

After seven straight years of cuts to the university budget, we hope to see the hatchet set aside and a new commitment to growth.

That said, we wouldn't want a major UH budget funding increase to come at the cost of K-12 education. What's the point of creating a top-notch university that Hawai'i's children are barely qualified to attend?

Sure, the budget battle in the coming year will be a tough one. There won't be obvious revenue to increase UH funding while covering the other needs. The point is, we must try. The way out of this budget quandary is economic growth, and a better university is the engine.