A college protest over cuts, and the Young Republican response
We had college protestors at the state Capitol today. This from my AJC colleague Laura Diamond:
Several hundred students from nearly all of Georgia’s 35 public colleges united for a rally Monday morning to protest proposed budget cuts. At one point, the University System of Georgia was facing up to $600 million in cuts for the 2011 fiscal year. While the actual cut may be closer to $350 million or $400 million, students said that deep of a cut still puts their education in jeopardy.
Cameron Fash, chairman of the Georgia Young Republicans, has penned a response. Click here to read it. A few paragraphs:
Higher education is not mandated by our government, nor should it be. But the costs associated with sending children to college or technical schools are not something that should be funded solely by the taxpayer. It is not your responsibility to pay for my child to have a higher education.
We already offer free and discounted college educations to our students here in Georgia. If receiving a college education is important to a child or family, then their focus should be on earning a B average or better during their four years in high school. College is not cheap, but the investment in your education can lead to higher paying jobs and job security.
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94 comments Add your comment
Michael Adams must go
March 15th, 2010
2:35 pm
In response to proposed budget cuts, Adams proposed eliminating vital programs in order to generate this anger. By generating this uproar, people will be sympathetic to students and Adams’ budget will not be cut. We need educators leading our universities instead of politicians.
oldfart
March 15th, 2010
2:37 pm
Translation: “Let ‘em eat cake.”
carpetbagger
March 15th, 2010
2:38 pm
To illustrate how effective your tax dollars are in funding public education, a photo accompanying the protest story on the ajc main page shows a student carrying a sign that reads “Your (sic) nuts to support cuts”.
support these cuts
March 15th, 2010
2:47 pm
How much did the dogs just spend on a new defensive coordinator? maybe they should just acknowledge that they have a second rate football team and fund education. isnt that the point of college?
HDB
March 15th, 2010
2:50 pm
When budget cuts adversely affect students close to graduation, something needs to be done; if budget cuts adversely affect students’ programs that force them to change schools or leave school altogether because programs are eliminated…something needs to be done!!
If the Governor can cut taxes on business, depriving the state of revenue inorder to attract business at the expense of educating the upcoming work force….SOMETHING NEEEDS TO BE DONE!!
CrazyInGA
March 15th, 2010
2:58 pm
Some one needs to let Cameron Fash know that many college students graduate with student loans over $50,000. No one expects the tax payers to pick up the bill for their eduction, but the cost keeps going up and they are not getting a better education for their bucks. And he referenced HOPE by saying they should maintain a B average in highschool; but, he failed to mentioned that many who purchase lottery tickets are middle class and poor.
I bet Cameron would be throwing a fit if someone mention cutting college football programs and eliminating the headcoach, travel associated with it and shoving that money into the academic part of education. He would probably “march down a street nude” if someone offered up a suggestion of selling his Frat or Sorority house and donating the funds to pay the salary of college professors.
Cameron seems to forget that not all parents earn $100,000 salaries; even if they have college degrees and a masters to boot.
ELEPHANTSOCIALIST
March 15th, 2010
3:07 pm
I got mine, you get yours! This is not welfare education guys…
I agree. Can’t afford it, stay dumb. All you will have to do is learn how to say, “Hi, may I take your order?”
Wow, you libs want everything given to you. Damn…
You Asked
March 15th, 2010
3:07 pm
Cameron needs to retake econ. 101
It’s getting embarassing to be a Republican these days.
Nocumentum
March 15th, 2010
3:08 pm
No one should be young and a Republican at the same time.
You Asked
March 15th, 2010
3:14 pm
If you’re not a liberal when you’re 25, you have no heart. If you’re not a conservative by the time you’re 35, you have no brain. -Anon. (Mis-attributed to Winston Churchill)
Dan
March 15th, 2010
3:15 pm
Nocumentum,
I’m young and Conservative. I’ll stick to my principles. You stick to your own.
CrazyInGA
March 15th, 2010
3:26 pm
You can have a brain, but it doesn’t mean there is anything in it. *** Voila – the meaning of Brain Dead.***
Eddie
March 15th, 2010
3:26 pm
But providing airports, runways, and back door tax subsidies for corporate jet owners to land on, free of charge is okay, right? Friends, in the right places. Start charging fair landing fees at GA airports, and cut back door administrative tax subsidies to them ( instead charge airport fair administrative fees), and counties and the state will save millions and millions of dollars. Does our government want to have great college programs, or does it want to make sure the rich continue landing their corporate jets for free?
Scott
March 15th, 2010
3:37 pm
I attended the protest this morning and it seems Mr. Fash singled out the single slab of cardboard that read, “Tax the Rich”. His response completely disregards the concerns of those protesting.
“With protesters waving signs, notably “Tax the Rich,” very few suggestions were made as to how to solve the budget crisis facing our state and our nation.”
What suggestions were made to combat the loss of professors, save the Botanical Garden, retain the jobs of University employees? What good does the HOPE scholarship do if it takes more than 4 years to graduate?
Math
March 15th, 2010
3:37 pm
Enter your comments here
School Kid
March 15th, 2010
3:39 pm
While you people sit and debate and yell at eachother over my future, I’ll work for it. I don’t need charity, I can do it on my own. People need to help themselves sometimes. Granted, some can’t afford it. What about those who didn’t work anyway? I applaud elephant socialist. We need people like you.
ATL
March 15th, 2010
3:40 pm
Shortchanging education in bad economic times is singlehandedly one of the worst things that any state can do… NOW is exactly the time for investment in the future… This country was founded and is one of the most powerful nations in the world precisely because universal education was viewed as a right and not a privilege by the founding fathers– God save us from our rather Un-American republican brethren whose strictly doctrinaire perspectives truly threaten the American Way of Life…
td
March 15th, 2010
3:40 pm
I went to college and worked at the same time to get my degree. I completed my degree and was not one penny in debt when I finished. This was before the HOPE scholarship and when I graduated I already had a work ethic. These kids today complete college come into the work force and want to be the boss on day one, do not want to roll their sleeves up and get dirty and need a vacation after just three months. Maybe we should do away with all scholarships and make everyone pay their own way?
Dimple
March 15th, 2010
3:40 pm
carpetbagger – No worse than an entire party of grown white men who don’t know the difference between an adjective and a noun. From young Fash’s letter:
“Taxing others, the cornerstone of Democrat(sic) policy, to pay for your education is not the solution.”
Math Teacher
March 15th, 2010
3:43 pm
While an individual certainly benefits from obtaining a college degree and should bear a fair portion of the expense, the state also benefits from having a well educated workforce. To remain economically competitive in an increasingly global and technological economy, the state needs to produce more college graduates. Public funding of higher education is not a “luxury” or “socialism”, it is sound public policy.
td
March 15th, 2010
3:46 pm
Scott, “What good does the HOPE scholarship do if it takes more than 4 years to graduate?” What does this statement mean? If you have to go a little longer then the degree is not worth it?
td
March 15th, 2010
3:50 pm
Math Teacher, Everyone can not be the boss. Someone has to actually do the work. We are in as much need of workers with the ability to build something or to turn a wrench as we are of most the degree the university system offers. The liberal elite argument that everyone needs a college degree is bogus and the reason we have lost most of our productive ability to the rest of the world.
Foghorn Langhorn
March 15th, 2010
3:51 pm
Fash would rather give Lottery execs bonuses for milking a cash cow. How shouldn’t those bonuses go towards a few more scholarships is beyond me.
You Asked
March 15th, 2010
3:51 pm
Schoolkid,
It is great you plan to do it on your own… I just want to know how far that sentiment goes with you. So do you plan to open the facilities, hire the instructors, do research to keep your curricula up to date, keep up with the accredidation requirements for your school and all of the other things that “charity” is providing for your education? Perhaps you can cough up the extra hundreds of millions of dollars you will need to “do it on your own”. (Must be nice to be Bill Gates kid).
You Asked
March 15th, 2010
3:53 pm
td- I’d rather have an overdeducated construction laberer than an undereducated nuclear engineer.
Scott
March 15th, 2010
3:55 pm
Hey Cameron…here’s a news flash for you. If you are unemployed my guess is that a tax increase isn’t going to really do much to hurt you since chances are you aren’t going to be paying any tax if you have no income
Scott
March 15th, 2010
3:55 pm
BTW, I’m not the same Scott as above.
Scott
March 15th, 2010
3:57 pm
It’s my understanding that the HOPE scholarship covers four years of education. Fewer professors and larger class sizes will make it much more difficult to graduate in four years. So, my point is that obtaining the HOPE scholarship will no longer go as far to pay for the education of those who couldn’t otherwise afford it. So, Mr. Fash’s “earn a B average” solution doesn’t hold water.
td
March 15th, 2010
3:58 pm
You Asked, Are college professors more valuable than K-12 teachers? Why should they make double a K-12 teacher and spend half the amount of time in the classroom? Do college campuses need to really look like castles? Does Adams need to make $560,000 per year, have a free house, free car and a lavish expense account for being a public servant? Do the college kids need to not pay anything for their education? Are we missing a valuable lesson about money?
Blue Neck
March 15th, 2010
3:58 pm
Like so many others, ELEPHANTSOCIALIST doesn’t understand Liberalism. We don’t want everything given to us. We are just tired of having everything taken from us. Conservatives want reduced taxes for business (along with subsidies) while stepping on individuals who are trying to climb out of their hole… thus ensuring the next generations of slaves.
Mike Smith
March 15th, 2010
4:00 pm
It’s a great point, GA College students receive a discounted college education, funded by the taxpayers; many of whom don’t even have kids. The argument is really about how much of a discount the kids should receive. My opinion is the discount should not be so high that it wouldn’t require some of them to get part-time jobs.
td
March 15th, 2010
4:01 pm
You Asked, How much is an overeducated construction worker worth? How much should society pay for this and not provide other services?
Aaron Burr V. Mexico
March 15th, 2010
4:01 pm
Republicans HAVE no principals save that which Glenn and Rush tell them they should have.
It Only Counts if a Republican Does It.
Young Republicans probably think Sarah Palin is a great leader. They probably think Bush was justified to go into Iraq.
This state is populated by some of the dumbest people in the damn world. So yeah, cut education.
It clearly isn’t working.
You Asked
March 15th, 2010
4:04 pm
td go back and read what I wrote… No one does it all on their own and the colleges need operating money to teach the students.
Most professors don’t make as much as K012 teachers much less twice as much. (I’m not a professor so I don’t have a dog in this fight when it comes to pay). Get some facts on average instructor pay in the University system not just sensational headlines based on a few administrators salaries.
Aaron Burr V. Mexico
March 15th, 2010
4:05 pm
I’m sorry You Asked but did you included “Facts” and a Republican/Libertarian in the same sentence?
These are people who think Fox news is a viable source of information and is “Fair and Balanced.” They live in their own reality and we would all be better off simply recognizing them as the reality deniers that they really are.
You Asked
March 15th, 2010
4:06 pm
An overeducated construction worker has more mobility in his career and in the end takes up less money than an uneducated manual laborer who is entirely dependent on the state if his/her job dries up. See Detroit MI and Allentown PA.
You Asked
March 15th, 2010
4:08 pm
…and no I’m not arguing for free education for anyone or that everyone should be a nuclear engineer. I am saying that the slash and burn mentality re: education or state services is extreme and harmful in the long run.
The university system should not be asked to bear a disproportionate amount of the states deficeits.
Yaargh
March 15th, 2010
4:09 pm
In response to Mr. Fash’s statement: Does he not know how public (key word) education works? Students pay tuition that goes to their university of choice, yes. But it being a PUBLIC university system, the majority of funds going to these schools receive state money to keep them running. Tuition doesn’t even remotely begin to cover everything a school needs to run. This is absolute silliness.
td
March 15th, 2010
4:13 pm
You Asked, Go to the the state accounting website and look at any college you want and then go to any public school system you choose. You will see that a college professor (Full time you can not count part-time professors) makes nearly twice as much as a K-12 classroom teacher. My facts are pretty straight. My point was not that we do not need colleges, it was to make people aware that they are the most bloated bureaucracy in the state. The board of regents is just trying to hide the fact that we the tax payers are not getting our moneys worth out of the service they are performing.
td
March 15th, 2010
4:20 pm
You Asked, “The university system should not be asked to bear a disproportionate amount of the states deficeits”
Now there is where you do not have your facts straight. Go look at the past 4 years budgets and calculate the percentage amount coming from all the agencies and you will find that the university system is not bearing a disproportionate amount. Now you are going to force me to say something good about the RINO Governor. Go back and check the budgets over his administration and you will find that a disproportionate amount of increases in the budget have went to the University system.
You Asked
March 15th, 2010
4:21 pm
I’d vote for Regents as the third most bloated bureaucracy in the state. I know of others with worse financial problems and less accountability.
AW
March 15th, 2010
4:21 pm
I don’t believe Cameron is wrong in his assessment. College has become another entitlement program. Not all students are going to come out with no debt, but there are plenty of options for kids to go to school free of charge or with limited expense. Let’s work to make college less expensive for those who can afford it and less of a financial burden for those who can not. The HOPE scholarship is a great example of that, for those who live in Georgia. We need to find ways to reduce the cost of education, not subsidize it more. Lowering the cost of education will free up more money for scholarships and student aid. We as a society need to value education more so than we do today. If our children will spend more time focusing on education, their grades will get them into college and will earn them the free ride they desire. We need to take personal responsibility.
Fact – The overall budget for higher education has increased, it has just not increased by the amount the Board of Regents wanted to so they are calling the difference between what they want and what the legislature is giving them a “cut.”
No where in Mr. Fash’s comment does he state giving money to Lottery Execs or any other absurdity. The entire article is about taking personal responsibility. I also think Mr. Fash supports education. Nowhere does he talk about cutting teacher pay. All he says is that when money is tight we need to look in the mirror first and ask ourselves what this education is worth to us.
I think the severity of this budget crisis is lost on many of those posting to this. Cuts are not something anybody wants, but the money has to come from somewhere. If it is not education then where?
Scott makes a comment that if you are unemployed then you don’t pay taxes so it is no burden on them. Your very point goes to show why we cannot tax those who are employed anymore than we already are. The tax base is growing smaller and smaller by the day.
Everyone should ask themselves one thing. If you are going to make cuts in the budget and for services, be willing to suggest a cut that will affect you personally and not just to someone else. We are all in this together.
You Asked
March 15th, 2010
4:23 pm
td- we are reaching agreement on the fact that some Agencies need to be held more accountable. I just take issue with statements that imply college education is a waste of time or that no public funds should be used to educate students, and the like from the above thread.
Michael
March 15th, 2010
4:32 pm
TD you losing me a little bit here. I was with ya on the other blog. School salaries work just like corporate salaries. If you want the best teachers, you have to pay the best salaries. I can agree that professors make more than K-12 teachers, but you have to agree that most professors either have certain specialties/fields of study, certain certifications, and are published/participated in vast amounts of research. I went to a state school in Alabama and the professors said most of their salary was based off of the amount of published work.
In the Free market is the Vice President worth more than the accountant and I guarantee he makes more than twice what the accountant makes.
JF McNamara
March 15th, 2010
4:34 pm
Mr. Fash obviously didn’t go to Georgia Tech or have a difficult major in college. I’m sure he got a 4.0 in his clownish political science field and thinks college was a breeze. It’s not easy to keep a state scholarship in Engineering. In a lot of cases, its a struggle just to make it out, and a lot of students end up switching majors because they can’t handle it and lose their scholarships in the process.
What he’s going to do is encourage students to take the easy majors just to keep the scholarship. Do we really want less Doctors, Engineers, and computer science majors simply because they can’t afford tuition if they get less than a B average?
George W Bush
March 15th, 2010
4:34 pm
Cameron:
(BTW, what a great Republican name… It sounds so Pace Academy) Who wrote that crap for you? Carl Rove? Here’s the problem with the Republican Party; they care about Self first and society as a whole second. The GOP mantra is “As long as I’ve got mine, screw the rest on ‘em”. It’s about tax breaks for the richest 1%; it’s about tax breaks for Daddy’s company; it’s about the “Regular Joe’s” of the world doing the heavy lifting so Cameron and Muffin can go the the Piedmont Driving Club and sign Dad’s name on the ticket.
So let me get this straight. You don’t have a problem with Sonny and the rest of the GOP blue bloods gutting the University System, while they build an $18M horse barn in Houston County but lay off thousands of hourly state employees. That’s right “I’ve got mine, so screw everybody else”. Don’t get me wrong, the Dems are pretty pathetic too. But at least they think it is important to have a functioning, literate society that is inclusive of folks other than white frat boys from Buckhead.
Jon
March 15th, 2010
4:34 pm
If the State is not going to follow the funding model with the University System(which they have not in years) then the System should have the ability to cover that lost revenue. If government cut farming subsidies we would expect food prices to increase, we cant have a quality University System without allowing them to follow the same principles. Research Universities are doing okay on the research and Aux portion of the equation and are being forced to use that to fund more and more of the education portion. Let the free market work if that is what is deemed necessary but we can’t attack it on both the funding side and then control the price.
td
March 15th, 2010
4:37 pm
You Asked, I think we are in agreement on accountability and the need of the state to fund and support college education. I just do not think the university system is a place for a person to become wealthy at the expense of other services during these hard times. They played a game and got some students and parents upset to the point of protest so the media would cover them and they would not have to cut their budgets. If this works, the legislature is going to either take additional money from agencies that can not afford more cuts or raise taxes in the state to cover the shortfall in revenue. In the mean time the highest paid government workers will not have to pony up their “fair share”.
Karl Rover
March 15th, 2010
4:46 pm
Georgie, you seem very angry today.
td
March 15th, 2010
4:47 pm
Michael, If there was not so much politics involved with receiving a full professorship and the professors got paid per merit then I would agree with you. Now is a full time college professor in Sociology worth twice the amount as a High School Math teacher with a PHD?