The issue: An expected shortfall of $1 billion in the state budget will lead to less funding for higher education and drastic cuts to education budgets.

Our view: If they want to keep from making a bad situation worse, state officials must be mindful not to cut more from higher education than is absolutely necessary.

In October 2007, the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education launched a plan titled “Double the Numbers.”

The plan detailed five statewide strategies that could be used to double the number of people with bachelor’s degrees by 2020.

The council said they proposed the plan because “increasing bachelor’s degrees is the quickest, most direct way for Kentucky to increase its economic prosperity.”

The Herald applauds the council for recognizing the most fundamental way to maintain a stable economy or revive a weakened one.

Whether in good times or bad, the key to future economic success rests in the hands of well-trained college graduates.

The only problem with this plan is that the state will likely make up its expected shortfall by slashing higher education funds and thereby crippling its best shot at turning around the stagnant economy.

While the Herald realizes that cuts to education are unavoidable in this economic climate, we hope state officials will remember that such cuts have the biggest impact on other areas affecting state well-being.

Common sense says that sending unprepared college graduates into the workplace wouldn’t be a step toward improving the budget deficit.

State officials must also realize that there’s not a temporary fix for this problem.

Correcting such a large shortfall will take patience and equal amounts of sacrifice from all the parties involved.

On the flip side, Western must start preparing for the inevitable cuts so it can maximize what money it will get from the state.

That means prioritizing and making cuts to areas that will have the least impact on students and the university’s academic reputation.

An example might be eliminating marginal majors and minors that only service a handful of students.

The Herald realizes that some students will invariably wind up the victims of campus-wide cuts.

But we can support cuts made by Western officials as long as they remember that their ultimate goal is to serve the best interests of the students.

Western and state officials might also have to re-evaluate their goals in order to account for the recent economic downturn.

But just because their current goals aren’t feasible right now doesn’t mean they should be totally abandoned.

After all, future generations cannot be called upon to solve the problems they’ll face if education is continually marginalized and mishandled by state officials.

That type of approach just doesn’t add up.

This editorial represents the majority opinion of the Herald’s 10-member editorial board.