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Talk about betting the farm.

This week Central State University told state education officials that if the governor and Legislature will give the school $10 million over the next three years, and if five other colleges help it increase its enrollment, CSU promises not to ask for any more special handouts.

This is audacious, courageous, risky — and the right thing to do.

Central State's future will always be tenuous if every time the state passes a budget, the school has to go to Columbus and hope the politicians are feeling generous.

There are legitimate reasons Central State gets a so-called supplement (that also is given to Shawnee State). Its enrollment is too small to generate the amount of money that is needed to run a university even after the state kicks in its per-student aid.

That problem is compounded by the fact that Central State serves a lot of low-income students; to help them be successful, it has to offer some special programs.

But because the supplement is discretionary, there's always a fight about whether the university is deserving. With a bigger enrollment, it would have economies of scale that would help it get off a seemingly never-ending financial treadmill.

The $10 million CSU wants would go toward bulking up its course offerings, recruiting, marketing and financial aid.

The money would not really be free. Starting in 2012, Central State proposes that the state start cutting its supplement from $12 million a year to zero over six years.

Simultaneously, Cincinnati's and Cleveland's community colleges and — most important locally — Sinclair Community College would aggressively partner with Central State to become feeder schools for it.

The community colleges would be handing off, if you

will, students who've completed one or two years at their schools, putting the young people on a path to a four-year degree.

That's good for the students (who would be saving money by starting out at a cheaper school). And it's good for Central State, which would get students who've been vetted for their interest in getting a degree.

All this is positive for the state. The better educated Ohio is, the more attractive it is to employers.

Meanwhile, Ohio State University and the University of Cincinnati also are part of the collaboration. These schools want Central State referring its best students to their graduate programs.

To make Central State's proposal a reality, the governor has to embrace the plan in his budget and the Legislature has to support it.

Gov. Ted Strickland shouldn't just endorse the idea. He should trumpet it in his first State of the State address next month, citing Central State and its partners as a model.

The state has to have more young people choosing college, completing college and getting graduate degrees. By working closely together, colleges themselves can do a lot to make sure that students get on tracks that no one ever told them were possibilities.

Besides this $10 million, Central State is also asking for money for a new student union. The two requests are related only in the sense that it's awfully hard to recruit students if they're immediately struck by the fact that there's really no place to gather and have the experiences that are part of residential college life.

Central State's student center was built in 1966, its pitifully small, 255-seat cafeteria in 1962. The new student union would house a modern and bigger dining hall, as well as give the students some decent recreational space.

There isn't a public college in Ohio that's making do with as few amenities as Central State. The school isn't asking for one of the boffo recplexes that have become the hallmark of the big schools; it would settle for facilities that are common in semi-modern high schools.

Central State has work to do — increasing its graduation rate, hanging on to freshmen who come for just a year and then quit. President John Garland is the first to acknowledge where the school is vulnerable to criticism. But he has a well-thought out plan to do what needs to happen.

Central State won't ever meet goals that supporters and critics alike agree on if it can't offer the courses and environment that students deserve — and are being asked to pay good money for.

Central State's growth plan

What is it: CSU wants to grow enrollment from 1,800 to 6,000 in 10 years and eliminate its budget supplement.

What will it cost now: $33 million over 3 years.

What's the money for: Almost $10 million for program offerings in urban education, criminal justice, hospitality management and environmental engineering. $23 million is for a new student union.