The important thing to remember about this year's state budget is that the most relevant part for MSU students hasn't yet been decided.

It's hard to tell what the governor and state Legislature are thinking at times when they champion the importance of education and then tinker with funding to state universities such as MSU.

In February, state officials promised to maintain funding to public universities as long as schools kept their tuition rates at or below the inflation rate. MSU and Wayne State University pledged to keep tuition rates within these bounds.

In June, the state House approved a $1.7 billion higher education budget that replaced the deal made in February, but allowed schools to increase tuition by an average of 4.2 percent. MSU and Wayne State stuck with the conditions of the old deal.

The state should notice and reward this kind of devotion - even if lawmakers changed their minds mid-summer - while drafting the higher education section of the still-pending state budget.

Everyone understands how bad Michigan's budget constraints are right now, but the state is still free to send a message with how it spends its limited money. The state should stick by its own plan, under the "Cool Cities" initiative, to keep recent college graduates in the state. To keep graduates, there needs to be graduates and people in college to begin with. By keeping a budget for higher education in flux, the state may be pushing some of its most desired human commodity away from Michigan colleges and universities entirely.

Siphoning away resources from those poised to become leaders of industry in your own state is never a good idea. When it comes down to it, most people are still waiting for the state to come up with a better deal.

To be sure, K-12 education is important. It provides the framework for getting people to college, but it's baffling to focus on only one aspect of public education. The state, if it truly wants to get where it claims it's going, should channel as much money as it can into all institutions of public education. If this happens, the goals of the state will be taken care of in both the short and long term.

If public universities are willing to work with the state government, which we've seen they are, the state should not ignore that outreach.

Like Sen. Valde Garcia, R-Howell, said, schools need to know what to expect for funding soon. No institution of learning - K-12, university or otherwise - should be left in the lurch wondering how its going to pay for another school year.

This budget is crucial in its impact - both directly in how the state's economy will develop over the next decade or so, and indirectly in how constituents view the value of those they've elected to office.

University students, faculty and administrators aren't asking for that much, just the bare essentials of what is needed to keep college education at a nationally competitive level.

Issues as pressing as these do not deserve to be denied, so long as public universities have shown their willingness to cooperate.