Editorial board out of touch with average Michiganian
(Last updated: 06/24/09 7:30pm)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
Originally Published: 06/24/09 7:30pm
















Dr. Knowledge
06/24/09 8:57pmYes, Call your legislators! Demand that people paying taxes make it easier for you to attend college.
Find me where in the state/federal constitution it enumerates that the scholarship to college is granted.
President of College Democrats….. no wonder he wants someone else to foot the bill…
Tom W
06/24/09 10:22pm“Find me where in the state/federal constitution it enumerates that the scholarship to college is granted.”
Yeah, because the only laws we have in this country are contained in the federal & state constitutions…give me a break.
I tend to be sympathetic with the state govt. though. People love to b!tch about the budget deficit and too much spending, but the minute anything is cut, people complain (first the prison cut-backs, now scholarships).
Look those cuts got to come from somewhere, and like it or not, its the jobs of those on Cap Hill in Lansing to decide where to make them.
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DJJ
06/24/09 10:36pmI WILL TELL YOU WHERE WE GET THE MONEY FOR STATE GOVERNMENT: Gov. Granholm should declare emergency powers and abolish the federal income withholding tax. Instead, we shall take half of the proceeds to remain within the state. If Obama’s administration is going to fund the entire federal government by selling Treasury securities to China and Japan, I say to hell with them, no more federal income taxes.
DJJ
06/24/09 10:43pmThe following is necessary to secure the blessings of liberty:
1.) Secession from the United States on the grounds that they have broken contract through unconstitutional actions
2.) State-ize the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago – Detroit branch office and print constitutional, non-inflating currency in Michigan.
3.) Create a two-tier credit system, infrastructure and utilities and energy get their own system of credit with long term statutory low interest rates.
4.) Sky high tariffs on non-U.S.
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Preston
06/25/09 8:52amI agree, its counter intuitive to cut education aid when tuition is rising at an unprecedented rate and ‘the knowledge economy’ is repeatedly said to be our future.
On the other hand, Michigan doesn’t produce nearly enough jobs to actually keep college graduates, not to mention graduate level students to stay in Michigan after they finish college, so in theory, why subsidize the education of someone who will use it in another state anyway.
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Eddie
06/25/09 10:00amYeah, just keep cutting and milking education in Michigan. Maybe someday you’ll end up like Florida where the public education is ranked 48th out of 50 states. People need to stop looking at education as a selfish endeavour bettering individuals and more as an investment to the well-being of the country and economy as a whole.
Todd
06/25/09 10:59amEddie,
That comment might hold water if the government monopoly on education were producing decent results. Know what the average ACT score in Michigan was last year? Just over 18. Barely better than 50 percent. Is that really an “investment to the well-being of the country and economy as a whole?”
I think not.
Sparty
06/25/09 11:00amSince the State News seems to think getting rid of our scholarships isnt a big deal, we all need to go to their building and request our student State News tax back.
This isnt something i’m making up. You ARE allowed to do this and it only takes 5 minutes. While its not going to replace what we’re losing, its a start.
101% I agree...
06/25/09 11:45am..that the Editorial Board is most certaintly out of touch with the average Michiganian! Shame on them!!!
I couldn’t agree more with your statement that “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.” Your letter was perfectly written!
Todd
06/25/09 12:44pmI didn’t know MSU offered a bachelor’s degree in “welfare queen.”
Gimme, gimme, gimme. I want, I want, I want. To hell with the taxpayers actually footing the bill who are paying this welfare entitlement, right?
Guess it wouldn’t occur to anyone to ask why the costs keep going up, just take the easy way out and stomp your feet and hold your breath as you demand to be given something that is NOT yours and you HAVE NOT earned.
Mitchell Rivard
06/25/09 2:10pmIf you are interested in helping with the MSU College Democrats on our campaign to hold the State News accountable, please feel free to e-mail me at president@msudems.org.
Todd
06/25/09 2:16pmOh brother. A cog in the partisan political machinery that wants to hold someone else “accountable.” Funniest thing I’ve read all day.
Concerned MSU Student
06/25/09 2:21pmMitchell,
Please demand the state news offers a retraction or else on behalf of students use your role as President to raise awareness of this issue AND please have the first awareness event be organizing students to get their State News taxes back. Perhaps then the State News will realize that taking away critical funding isnt “insignificant”.
Tim
06/25/09 4:48pmGood call, Todd.
Nothing says welfare queen like a high school student with good grades looking for help paying for college.
Dr. Knowledge
06/25/09 6:45pmMitchell,
What are you going to hold the SN accountable for?? Printing their opinion? Get a grip, some one doesn’t have the same opinion as you and you fly of the handle.
Dave
06/25/09 11:30pmThis is ridiculous. This is a teachable moment; one can’t rely on the government for anything, I spent a year in Iraq, actually earning my tuition assistance, yet to see it be omitted from the budget. Get over it, the state owes you nothing, so get over it. I actually served time for my assistance, but they have eliminated it. Welcome to the Granholm adminstration, you morons.
Dr. Knowledge
06/26/09 1:06amDave,
Thank you for your service to our country. I doubt you get much thanks around here.
America
06/26/09 9:18amEl-oh-el, Tim. Those damn high-performing, high-potential high school students and their desire for a little help to alleviate the astronomical rise in college tuition that is accompanied by more than a decade of stagnant wages and the ever-increasing gap between the haves and have-nots — what a bunch of welfare queens looking for a handout! Damn hippies!
On a serious note, I was able to attend college and graduate school with some “handouts” like scholarships and grants including the Michigan Promise, working full-time or nearly full-time the entire time, and Uncle Sam’s loans.
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JT
06/26/09 9:53amAmen DAVE
The gov’t doesn’t “owe” anyone a darn thing. People forget that this money has to come from somewhere. Well Jenny, I’m blown away!!!
Todd
06/26/09 11:29amAmerica,
Yes, the price of college is getting absurd. Why not focus on that instead of whining that we should continue to steal money from people who earn it and give it to kids for college?
Zeke
06/26/09 12:02pm“Gimme, gimme, gimme. I want, I want, I want. To hell with the taxpayers actually footing the bill who are paying this welfare entitlement, right?”
The scholarships are actually the people of Michigan working as a collective to encourage the brightest and best students to stay in-state for college and, hopefully, produce the technologies that get Michigan running again.
Michigan needs to evolve to stay competitive in the world economy.
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Zeke
06/26/09 12:03pmCorrection: the sentence should read:
“Personally, I would rather pay a thousand dollars to put a kid through school than to keep a crackhead incarcerated.
Todd
06/26/09 1:57pmZeke,
The people of Michigan? Hmmm, I don’t remember voting on any such program. Do you?
Just a thought
06/26/09 2:36pmZeke, maybe that biomedical engineer will develope a new virus that kills you.
Tim
06/26/09 2:51pmGeez, Todd. I don’t recall voting on a program to build roads or rebuild roads over in Grand Rapids. I don’t use them so what do I care if they aren’t built or repaired. Of course we all did get to vote for our governor, mayor, representatives etc. so in a way we did vote for these programs. The notion that anything done without a direct vote from the people is silly.
...The funny thing is that you paint people as selfish for “expecting” scholarships, but appear to oppose any program that doesn’t directly benefit you.
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