The council, which revealed its recommendations this week, is calling for dramatic changes in two popular but unsustainable financial aid programs. It proposes doubling tuition at our universities and community colleges over the next decade. It says the state needs to build new universities and find more money to help students from low-income families.

All of those recommendations required a degree of courage. Some of them would cut programs that are popular with politically powerful constituencies, and others would force Tallahassee officials to face up to some neglected needs.

But the council stopped short of making a more politically courageous -- and obvious -- point: None of these reforms will succeed unless the state puts more money into the underfunded higher education system. Unfortunately, the council avoided calling for a single additional tax dollar to help pay for its recommendations.

Education Secretary Jim Horne, who appointed the council's members, should be an advocate for education, not an apologist for Gov. Jeb Bush and the Legislature, yet he has short-circuited efforts to address the system's broader funding needs. He should be leading the effort to make Floridians aware of the education system's real needs, even if they occasionally conflict with political realities.

The council's proposals now go to the state Board of Education, which will send a final report to the governor and Legislature. The proposals deserve to be taken seriously, and the council could provide political cover for Tallahassee lawmakers to make some politically difficult choices.

The state system does need new universities. Several of our existing campuses already are badly overcrowded, and access to the system is inadequate.

The state does need to redirect aid for students in financial need. While so-called merit-based aid has been greatly increased -- even for thousands of students of no particular academic merit -- need-based aid has suffered.

The Bright Future scholarships and Florida Prepaid College Plan do need to be restructured -- perhaps dramatically so -- to make them fairer and financially sound. The state has an obligation to meet those programs' existing commitments, but the long-term future of both programs should be considered in the context of the state's broader support for higher education. Standards for Bright Future scholarships should be adjusted so that average students from affluent families no longer benefit at the expense of qualified students from low-income families. At the same time, future increases in the university system's artificially low tuition rates should not be held hostage to open-ended obligations of the Prepaid College Plan.

As Tallahassee officials respond to the council's recommendations, they should judge them according to the broad principles that should guide the state's higher education commitments. No qualified Florida student should be denied access to our colleges and universities because of a lack of space or a lack of funds. State scholarship programs should favor the very best students, and those with the greatest financial need.

All of those commitments, whether or not the council, the governor and the Legislature want to admit it, will require more money than Florida currently commits to its higher education system.

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