Preston Bryant is a Republican who has represented Lynchburg and part of Amherst County in the Virginia House of Delgates since 1996.

Consumers with a stake in the higher education marketplace – we’re mostly talking about students and their tuition-paying parents – are increasingly interested in the way U.S. News & World Report ranks their favorite colleges and universities.

The magazine ranks institutions within various categories. They’re broken down regionally as well as by size and the academic programs offered, and they’re done so at both the undergraduate and graduate school levels. The rankings are determined from surveys conducted and stats compiled as well as opinions offered up by so-called experts. So the rankings are generated from both objective and subjective measures.

Virginia’s renowned collection of colleges and universities – both public and private – has always shone brightly in the rankings. And that continues to be the case.

The College of William & Mary consistently is among the top small public universities in the nation. The folks in Williamsburg take pride in their national standing, and they quite rightly proclaim it for the world (i.e., prospective students and donors) to see.

The University of Virginia historically has shown up in the yearly rankings as about the best public, four-year institution there is, typically vying for the top spot with Berkeley. Mr. Jefferson’s university also boasts a highly ranked medical school – with some disciplines within it presenting well in their own rights – as well as a top-flight law school and graduate business school.

The largest university in the state, Virginia Tech, has been rising steadily as a major research university. The administration has set high standards here, and the university community is rising to the occasion. The engineering school, for example, is gaining more and more recognition across the land.

These three schools are among Virginia’s “flagship” institutions. While there’s no need to go on citing specific institutions and how the magazine has ranked them over the years, suffice it to say that we’re blessed with a plethora of other large public and private schools that shine in the magazine in one way or another – James Madison University, the University of Richmond, and George Mason University, just to name a few. And among our smaller, private liberal arts schools – Randolph-Macon College, Hampden-Sydney College, Washington & Lee University, etc. – well, there’s a tremendous amount of pride in the rankings they achieve, too.

All of this interest in the U.S. News & World Report rankings, however, is both good and bad. Obviously, it’s always a source of pride when your school does well. And when it slips a place or two for one reason or another, there’s a tendency to look up for the falling sky.

When the magazine came out a week or so ago with its annual ranking of graduate school programs, we found that while William & Mary’s schools of law and education rose a handful of spots, as did George Mason’s law school, we also saw a few programs at other schools fall a notch or two.

People rejoice when schools and programs rise in high-profile rankings. Institutions’ presidents and deans shout it, and their press and marketing people – not to mention their admissions offices – work overtime. But when this or that school or academic program slips in rank, look out. Somebody’s to blame.

At UVa, it’s grad programs in law, business, and education all fell a couple points, and Virginia Tech saw its engineering school slip a few places.

And what happened? The higher ed muckity-mucks, joined by a few editorial writers, turned on the governor and state legislature, blaming the lower rankings on decreasing state financial support.

Without an increasing amount of state dollars, they argued, we’re destined to see more slippage in the rankings. And then we’ll have more trouble attracting and retaining faculty. And then teaching and research will fall. And then our best and brightest high school seniors will look to other states’ schools. And then we’ll put out fewer well-trained graduates. And then …

Well, while there is certainly something to be said for this line of fright – it’s true, these things could happen – let’s not start running for the hills just yet. There will always be some institutions that go up in the rankings and some that go down. Generally speaking, however, the quality of Virginia’s colleges and universities, and the schools and academic departments within them, has remained fairly steady over the years.

The state’s financial commitment to our higher education system has been pretty good for about the past five years, as we’ve seen record amounts of additional state dollars – nearly half a billion, to be exact – invested in it. The state’s commitment over the past six or eight months, however, is suspect, as it was during this period that several hundred million were siphoned from our institutions in order to help keep the state’s books balanced in this economic downturn.

Was it unavoidable that our colleges and universities had to take a hit, like all other state agencies? Yes. But did they have to take such a disproportionate hit? No.

Draining dollars from our colleges and universities – especially in such huge amounts over such a short period of time – is not something that can continue. That’s for sure. The governor and General Assembly must pay more attention to protecting – and nurturing – a higher ed system that impacts so heavily our families, communities, and economy.

At the same time, let’s keep in perspective the national rankings that, for good or ill, define our colleges and universities in so many consumers’ eyes. Let’s see these rankings for what they are and use them appropriately. Misinterpreting and misusing them serves no one very well.