Political economist Russell Williams recently noted that Memorial University doesn’t make its budget public in the same way other universities do. Thanks to the existence of good quality public education in this province I was able to be accepted to a high-ranking Ph.D. program, with full funding. Newfoundland and Labrador used to be the crown jewel in Canadian public education, on par with European countries for cost-effective education. We were doing it right as the rest of Canada moved toward defunding public education. Memorial University is an important asset in driving economic development in a province that has always struggled economically.