BLINKERED VISION? Blogs for Industry notes that Texas A&M's Vision 2020 encounters resistance from state government.

As the state's universities are bracing for a potential 10 percent funding cut, Gov. Rick Perry was asked by a Houston Chronicle reporter about the reductions. His answers riled some, who believe they are misleading and show Texas' top official doesn't have a grasp of how research universities such as Texas A&M work.

In the interview printed last week, Perry was asked about layoffs and buyouts of experienced faculty. He was quoted as saying, "We're laying off professors because there was a huge hiring increase that went on in the mid-2000s and these people are not even in the classrooms teaching our kids. I totally support that concept. Reductions in personnel that are nonessential at universities is good fiscal management."

Perry's campaign did not dispute the accuracy of the comments. A spokesman said Perry is a supporter of research universities, noting that he signed legislation last year that promotes the creation of more top-tier research universities in Texas.

"Just like families, and businesses, and corporations throughout the state, universities have to make the difficult decision of where their resources are being spent," said Perry spokesman Mark Miner. "Those resources should be in the classroom. The goal here is to educate students."

A&M's plan intends to raise the university's visibility. As such, it is a sensible response to the excess demand for perceived prestige. The state is pursuing a false economy: lower the profile, drive the competitive faculty away, discourage enrollments.

We can look forward to gripes about the most famous academicians in Texas being lured away to cushy billets elsewhere. (Yes, and the highway commissioner can, with equal justification, gripe about the price of steel going up because BNSF and Union Pacific are double- and triple-tracking their main lines.)