Michael Boulus says in an op-ed that the Mackinac Center for Public Policy won't be happy until Michigan's public universities are in the same poor condition as its highways. Boulus references a recent article citing figures on state higher education spending from 1992 to 2001. He says the piece leaves out the huge budget cuts sustained by universities since then - which he terms as intellectual dishonesty at its worst. Boulus writes, "The states with the higher per capita incomes in our nation are those with the most college graduates - not the states with the lowest taxes. It is vital that Michigan revive key institutions like higher education if we are to emerge from the economic realignment with a path to prosperity for all of our citizens."