I cannot believe the State News editorial board took a stance saying that the elimination of the Michigan Promise Scholarship is “necessary” (SN 6/24).
Just as with the Republicans who voted to slash the funding that allows almost 100,000 students to go college, the State News editorial board is myopic, uninformed and clearly delusional.
We cannot continue to have a “learning tax” on education that damns our children out of attending college. It is sickening to me that our children in this state continually have to put up with tuition increases, and now scholarship cuts to attend college and better themselves through education.
When will people — especially Republicans in the Senate — wake up and see that these young professionals are our future, and if we don’t let them attend college, we will never be able to move this state forward?
Higher education has already taken the brunt of our hard times for our increasingly difficult times. Just this month, most public universities announced yet another round of tuition increases to try and offset decreasing budget allocations from the state. MSU alone announced a series of increases over the next two years, adding up to a 10.1 percent increase. This on top of tuition increases for the last several years, as well as the rising costs of textbooks, room and board, and student fees.
The State News editorial board and Republicans in the Senate are obviously out of touch with students and their families, who are barely able to pay for the rising costs of higher education as it stands. Lawmakers in Lansing need to realize that in order to keep our students in Michigan, we need to minimize the costs associated with higher education and provide them with opportunities and incentives to stay in Michigan. Making cuts to scholarships will only force students to move elsewhere to look for better opportunities.
If you are a student, you need to be outraged at the possible cutting of this scholarship. There is no time to just sit back and complain about what the state is doing. You need to demand action. Please contact your legislator immediately — both in the House of Representatives and the Senate — and let them know that you shouldn’t be increasingly burdened for simply wanting to better your education. This is not an issue of individual survival of the latest round of cuts to education. We all need to stand together and say enough is enough.
Mitchell R. Rivard
social relations and policy junior and president of MSU College Democrats
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