After Gov. Tom Vilsack’s Condition of the State address Tuesday, one question should have sprung to the mind of anyone affiliated with higher education in Iowa:

“Dude, where’s my funding?”

The recent financial woes of Iowa’s three state universities and the state Board of Regents’ proposed solution to those woes were conspicuously missing from Vilsack’s speech — an omission that is hopefully not a harbinger of discussions to come for this new legislative session.

The simple fact is this: The Legislature must take action on the cost and quality of higher education in Iowa, and this year, despite a nearly even Republican-Democrat split, is the right time to do it.

In his address, Vilsack reiterated again and again the importance of two things: investment in primary education and economic growth in the state.

In his push for increased funding and higher standards for K-12 schools, he noted that only 54 percent of Iowa students go on to college or community college after high school, and only 28 percent earn a degree after six years. That, Mr. Governor, likely has as much to do with tuition costs — which have risen 68.2 percent since the 1997-98 school year, according to the Board of Regents — as any standards or funding issues in Iowa’s primary schools.

In the address, Vilsack also pushed hard for the Iowa Values Fund and increased economic stimulus for the state. This is certainly a positive and necessary development — provided he and the Legislature can come up with the $800 million it requires — but its success depends on something only universities can provide: educated and skilled workers.

The governor noted an increase of 50,000 college-educated workers in Iowa in the past three years. This reverse of the brain drain could just be the tip of the iceberg, however, if the Legislature assists regent universities. A transfusion of state funds would not only stimulate enrollment and allow more students to afford to finish school by lowering tuition, it would allow universities to bring back programs cut in the past few years.

College students and, by extension, the state of Iowa, have suffered long enough. It’s time to make higher education in Iowa a priority again.

The Board of Regents has presented a responsible, logical plan that asks as much from the universities themselves as it does from the state government.

For the Legislature to ignore that plan and the 68,949 students it will relieve would be irresponsible and shortsighted.