Charges by State Rep. John Countryman, R-DeKalb, that the Board of Regents sent the wrong message to legislators when they approved a tuition surcharge, should be taken seriously.

Higher education officials have spent the last year screaming about the need for a tax increase. Yet this message obviously didn’t convince enough people or the right people.

While students who have continually paid higher tuition agree that a tax increase is necessary, it is more difficult to convince the average taxpayer that yet another increase is necessary.

When asked to pay more taxes, most people question how the taxes they already shell out are being used. They usually point to wasteful spending in the legislature and at the universities and then question whether they should receive more funds.

As a legislator, Countryman is right to question the Regents use of state funds. After all, a tax increase effects far more people and for a longer period of time than a tuition increase.

Yet both Countryman and State Sen. Patrick Welch both expressed concern over tuition increases. Welch said universities opposed a bill that would have limited the amount of tuition increases.

How can legislators justify increasing taxes for everyone in the state, if the groups requesting the funds do not prove that the money they already receive is not being wasted?

Higher education must compete with a host of other causes for state dollars. And it must prove that the money is needed and will not be wasted.

The ability to prove this has been seriously weakened with the Regents decision to grant NIU professor Clyde Wingfield a year off with pay. Legislators expect to see professors in the classroom if they are to convince their constituents that a tax increase is necessary.