S.H.E.: Support for Hidden Extortion

UCSU's Support for Higher Education campaign, a.k.a. "S.H.E.", is a tragic symptom of ugly special-interest politics. As Pulitzer Prize winning humor columnist Dave Barry explains: "[L]ook at what government does: it takes money from some people, keeps a bunch of it, and gives the rest to other people."¹

There are thousands of educational non-profits in Colorado. If CU is so good, it should compete with them fairly. Arguing that CU needs tax dollars insults both tax payers and CU itself. It implies that either tax payers are too stupid to recognize a truly worthy cause, that CU fund-raisers are simply inept, or that CU is a boondoggle that could not survive if people were not forced to fund it.

Yet, it's tough to blame a special interest group such as S.H.E. for seeking government funds. Government has turned non-profit organizations into predatory special-interest groups. Compulsory philanthropy laws create a perverse incentive: plunder or be plundered.² But there is a better way.

Consider Philanthropic Research, Inc., itself a nonprofit organization. With its on-line GuideStar database of nonprofits, it "envisions the evolution of an increasingly efficient nonprofit marketplace where donors seek out and compare charities, monitor their performances, and give with greater confidence; [where] nonprofit organizations pursue more effective operating practices, embrace greater accountability, and enjoy lower fund-raising costs; and society benefits from a more efficient, generous and well-targeted allocation of resources to the nonprofit sector."

We would all be better off with such a system. Compulsory charity kills compassion and voluntary giving. People stop taking responsibility for improving their world by investing time or money in efficient and effective charities (or other ventures) that tackle problems most important to them. Instead, government "frees us" of this responsibility, and all but the most conscientious people assume that any social problem is not their problem, as "government is taking care of it" - with other people's money.

From this perspective, S.H.E. really stands for Support for Hidden Extortion. We don't need government to make us do the right thing. Let's stop the government-charity racket; it's a front for lining the pockets of bureaucrats at the expense of truly worthwhile charities. Brian Schwartz
Campus Libertarians

¹ This reminds me of David Friedman's description of special-interest politics in The Machinary of Freedom. People, so 100 of them, representing the special interests sit around a table, and the government tax collector takes a dollar from each, keeps $50, and places the other $50 in front of one of the special interests, who now thinks he's "won." The tax collector does this 99 more times, so each special interest "wins" once, though each one is now $50 poorer, but happy to have received a subsidy, and the tax collector is up $5,000.

² Apparently Public Choice Theory has crept into my ideas, though I've never read any of it directly.

S.H.E. is ready to rally Friday

T-shirts and little blue buttons sported by students all across CU-Boulder's campus are asking the same question: "Where is S.H.E.?"

The University of Colorado Student Union (UCSU) has the answer: S.H.E. is going to be camped out with friends on the west steps of the Colorado State Capitol building at noon Friday rallying for exactly for what the acronym stands - Support for Higher Education.

The group is a coalition of Colorado student governments, local business leaders and members of parent-teacher associations who want to ensure that Colorado public institutions of higher education don't get privatized for lack of state funding. The main focus of the campaign so far has been raising awareness on the issues.

Sergio Gonzales, UCSU Tri-Executive, said privatization of CU is a principal fear of the S.H.E. campaign.

"If you privatize these schools, a lot of students will be left out of the loop," he said.

S.H.E. is garnering extensive support for its efforts. In addition to CU's undergraduate campuses - Boulder, Colorado Springs and Denver - other schools such as the Colorado School of Mines, Metro State in Denver and the University of Northern Colorado are involved in the campaign.

Gonzales said Colorado State University decided to join the campaign a few days ago. He said all the support from students at different Colorado public universities is a good sign.

"This campaign is in its infancy, but it's amazing how much momentum it is gaining," Gonzales said. "It's exciting to see all these school working together on one issue."

The campaign is seeing a lot of support from local business leaders and parent teacher associations. According to Gonzales, parents of kids in K-12 need to pressure the Legislature to protect higher-ed funding because they share a stake in it.

State House Minority Leader Andrew Romanoff, a Denver Democrat, said the campaigners are doing a good job of educating people.

"It puts a human face on the budget crisis," he said. "We cut a billion here and a billion there. Pretty soon it feels like Monopoly money."

He said legislators are paying attention to the students.

"The most dramatic lesson for us is when the students and [CU President Elizabeth] Hoffman talk about ending public higher education by the end of the decade. It's a real wake-up call," Romanoff said.

State Sen. Ron Tupa, a Boulder Democrat, said he thinks the campaign is catching attention on Capitol Hill.

"I think the students are starting to make in-roads [with the Legislature]," Tupa said. "I'm impressed with them and 100 percent behind them."

Romanoff and Tupa will both speak at the rally.

But not all students support the S.H.E campaign.

Brian Schwartz of Campus Libertarians, in a Wednesday letter to the Colorado Daily, stated he thought the measure's acronym stood for "Support for Hidden Extortion," indicating a lack of confidence in CU's ability to be entrepreneurial in raising money.

"UCSU's Support for Higher Education campaign, a.k.a. 'S.H.E.,' is a tragic symptom of ugly special-interest politics," Schwartz wrote. "There are thousands of educational non-profits in Colorado. If CU is so good, it should compete with them fairly. Arguing that CU needs tax dollars insults both taxpayers and CU itself. It implies that either tax payers are too stupid to recognize a truly worthy cause, that CU fund-raisers are simply inept, or that CU is a boondoggle that could not survive if people were not forced to fund it."

On a wider scale, Eugene Pearson, UCSU Legislative Council vice president, said he hopes the rally draws a lot of media attention so "we can move beyond the fiasco with the football team."

"These allegations [against the Athletic Department's recruiting program] are very untimely for the S.H.E. campaign because certain people might use this to say, 'CU is misusing money right now,'" he said.

Pearson specifically mentioned Gov. Bill Owens as a state official who might use the allegations against CU to curtail funding requests.

S.H.E. members will be setting up a meeting with the governor soon to discuss issues related to funding, according to Gonzales.

CU President Elizabeth Hoffman counts herself among officials who want the state to grant CU a state designation called enterprise status, which could result in more fundraising latitude for the university system.

Steve Fenberg, a CU sophomore and UCSU representative, said S.H.E. is not specifically embracing the enterprise issue, but that the main goal of the coalition is to get support for more funding in general.

Personally, though, Fenberg would like to see reforms go beyond simply achieving enterprise status.

"[Enterprise status] would be good for the school because we'd get more revenue, but it would be bad for lower-income students. If we had enterprise status, tuition would definitely go up," he said.

UCSU Tri-Executive Vershara Lott is optimistic that the rally will have a positive impact. But she is worried about one thing.

"Hopefully it's not too cold," she said. "We're trying to get hot chocolate."