The Budget Breakdown: Trimming higher ed may erode job opportunities

Larger college classes? Fewer teaching assistants? Freezes in faculty salaries?

At a time when the governor wants to cut basic health care, adding 100 students to a freshman lecture class at the University of Washington doesn't sound like much of a state crisis.

For a different viewpoint, consider the situation faced by Brian Bershad, a former UW computer-science professor who is now the engineering site director for Google Seattle/Kirkland. He'd like to hire more UW computer-science engineers — a lot more.