Thanks to all the bailouts and stimuli, higher ed folks are singing “Hail, hail, the witch is dead! Which old witch? The Budget Witch!”

Yesterday, a whole slew of ivory-tower advocacy groups called on Congress to furnish big increases in Pell Grants and work-study as part of any upcoming stimulus package. And that’s probably just the beginning of the rampant Treasury-looting (or is it looting future generations?) in which they intend to partake.

Explained Barmak Nassirian, associate executive director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers:

“I think everybody is going to fight for their fair share,” Nassirian says of the current budget climate.

As a result, long-time concerns about deficit spending and limited resources have all but vanished. “The budget always has checkmated many policy ideas we presented in the past,” Nassirian says. Of the abrupt shift in tone in Washington, he says, “It’s extraordinary.”

We’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto.