M ost spiritually aware Boulderites have probably at least heard of the Great Law of the Iroquois Confederacy - that people should consider the impacts of a decision on the next Seven Generations.

But when it comes to higher education, it has seemed in recent years as if the State of Colorado's vision quest hasn't looked far beyond one-seventh of a generation into the future.

That's been a shame, because despite the occasional scandalous warts, higher ed and the research done at its institutions quite simply leads to development of cutting-edge technology, useful products and educated professionals. Students also gain exposure to new cultures, systems of government, literature, art, and discourse.

Then, the students take the experience and knowledge into society, and pass it on to the next generation, which passes it on to the next. It's not a stretch to say the impacts of a decision to invest in higher ed, from the individual or societal levels, have a real ripple effect.

If you don't believe us, ponder for a moment the impacts of locating CU in Boulder - about seven generations ago.

And certain Coloradans get it. As the 2008 state Legislative session draws to a close, our hats are off to Speaker of the House Andrew Romanoff and friends for coming up with a plan to dismantle a couple of truly short-sighted parts of our Constitution in favor of the bigger picture.

People disagree, usually along left-right partisan lines, but many people have said that the one-two punch of spending limits in the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights (TABOR) and mandatory K-12 spending increases in Amendment 23 have impacted higher ed funding in the wrong way.

We think Romanoff's resolution HJR 1014 took guts, because it tackles provisions in both A-23 and TABOR - since to a simplified extent A-23 is loved by the left while TABOR is revered by the right. You could call 1014 a form of sacred cow-tipping.

But it also makes plain-Jane sense, since 1014 would remove some of the fiscal inflexibility that should never have been in the Constitution in the first place.

As we all move towards seventh-generation thinking (right?), Colorado's initiative writers and voters should remember not to create steel-trap mandates that might have no relation to actual fiscal reality several years down the road. The Legislature might not pass 1014, but similar citizen initiatives are waiting in the wings and voters should expect to see one of the proposals on the 2008 ballot.

Next, we'd like to thank Gov. Bill Ritter and legislators for passing HB 1001, which devoted about $25 million towards bioscience research grants.

It's got a five-year timeline, but it should have at least a several-generation impact for CU and the state, since the grants will go to tech transfer offices at universities and to startup biotech firms located in Colorado. Expect the funding to translate into a very positive money-multiplier effect, but on top of that, society should get important new medical products or biofuels to boot.

Other 2008 developments aren't as clear on May Day as they might be by Election Day. For example, there are so many proposals still on the table about what to do with severance taxes, or taxes on oil/gas/mineral extraction, that you might not be able to tell them apart without a program.

Ritter has proposed using severance tax increase money to fund scholarships, which didn't please CU's President Bruce Benson and several other university presidents who were hoping for big-time help with operating expenses.

Oddly enough, or not, we think both Ritter and the presidents have a point.

But Ritter is making a nice seventh-generation choice, since scholarships in many cases can help a student of meager means move up an economic/social class or two - and pay some of it forward to the next generation(s).

Whether voters eventually approve of Ritter's plan or not, Benson and the other university heads will need to keep plugging - which happens to be something that Benson is pretty good at.

And it's pretty clear that many Coloradans have moved beyond the last-generation thought process of seeking a "10 minutes of shopping at Costco" rebate check -while watching state infrastructure or higher education suffer for lack of resources.

Money is tight almost everywhere these days, and higher ed had better be ready to demonstrate proof of fiscal responsibility in 2008 - but Coloradans should also be ready to make some seventh-generation choices in the voting booth.