To the editor:

About the Citizens for Higher Education statistics in the Saturday, July 22, column about state universities: When it comes to government spending, such as universities, raw dollars are not necessarily the best measure of value provided. Their points raise more questions than they answer.

For instance, is it bad that tax revenues per higher education student are lower in Kansas than in other Big 12 states? Could it be that our state wastes less tax revenue than other Big 12 states?

Or this one: Appropriations per student are lower here than at other Big 12 schools. Is that additional money spent on academic resources, especially professors to teach undergraduate students, or is it spent on improvements to stadiums? We cannot tell.

It would be interesting to see a full-page article with meaningful state-to-state comparisons. Lobbing percentages without details is not enough.

Chip Cook,

Lawrence