Budget shows Mich.'s contempt for students
(Last updated: 11/02/09 7:33pm)After months of debating, a two-hour government shutdown and a monthlong extension, Gov. Jennifer Granholm finally signed a new Michigan budget into law last Friday, effectively eliminating the state’s $2.8 billion deficit.
But after all that drama, maybe legislators should think about working on the budget for next year.
Granholm said in a statement she wouldn’t “pretend that this is a good budget,” and neither will we.
Granholm had the audacity to voice her “disappointment” at the elimination of the Michigan Promise Scholarship while encouraging the Legislature to work hard to bring it back by finding additional funding.
This sounds nice, but what action did she take to keep the Promise? And not just in the past few weeks, but many months ago, when it was predicted that the scholarship could be in danger?
Granholm admittedly doesn’t have a magic wand, but a governor surely has some weight in these matters.
The Michigan Promise is not the only cut to higher education. The bill also eliminated state nursing scholarships, the Part-Time Independent Student Program, the Michigan Work Study Program and the Michigan Education Opportunity Grant. State funding for university operations was cut by 0.4 percent, and the total financial aid cuts amounts to a whopping 61 percent.
We are confident the governor and the Legislature could have taken additional measures to prevent some of these cuts. Though we realize financial aid funding can’t be saved in its entirety given the state of our economy, cutting 61 percent of financial aid is a slap in the face to the thousands of Michigan students attending college and universities.
There’s no question both Granholm and the Legislature had to make a lot of hard decisions in crafting this budget bill. But it’s also very likely that a lot of even harder decisions now have been deferred to next year’s budget.
Lawmakers procrastinated on this year’s budget until — quite literally — the last minute.
They always should have the budget on their minds and always should be looking for ways to cut frivolous spending and find new and creative ways to save funding. Studying for an exam throughout the semester is a lot more effective than cramming at the last minute. It might take more time and effort, but that ideally is what people sign up for when they go into state government.
A plan for the future is needed, and for lawmakers to only concern themselves with a year-to-year budget is foolhardy. It would be great if the Legislature could craft a five-year plan, but this likely will never happen so long as the plan exceeds politicians’ term limits.
Many MSU students have grown up in Michigan and would like to stay here. For those students, Michigan should be a place where they feel they can live, plant roots and start a family. But why should a graduating senior want to settle down in Michigan when the Legislature only is concerned about “surviving” year to year? This is especially true when in order to survive, we need to cut financial aid by 61 percent.
Both Granholm and the state Legislature should be ashamed of themselves. They procrastinated on a flawed budget, with not much to show for it but an elimination of debt and millions of dollars taken from students. Next year’s budget potentially could be worse than this year’s unless lawmakers take their job, their constituents and Michigan’s future seriously.
And if they do, they should get to work today.
Originally Published: 11/02/09 7:33pm
11/02/09 8:28pmHow about state news takes an active role in organizing students to protest at the capitol this year and every year in the future for better higher ed funding. THAT would be cool.
Mad Student
11/03/09 12:02amI have lived in Michigan for a total of about 14 out of my nearly 19 years here on Earth. The rest of the time has been split between various states and England. I always had my heart set on studying and living in Michigan, but now I am not sure whether I want to stay here for another three years to finish my degree let alone the rest of my life. The state is obviously an idiot because it continues to cut funding to our future- to education. I don’t want to raise my family in a state where I know that they are not going to have adequate teachers or resources. The state needs to wake up and realize that education is our future, or else this state is going to be a ghost state.
spartan68
11/03/09 12:16amI couldn’t care less about K-12 funding. Unlike most future parents, I’m not going to be a schmuck and appoint all educational duties to the public school system, rife with corrupt and incompetent unionized teachers. I will educate my own child to my fullest abilities outside work and school hours. I suggest all college educated parents do the same.
Education isn’t just getting certificates from institutions.
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MP
11/03/09 3:38amPeople are not entitled to a college diploma.
Pam
11/03/09 8:27amOf all the STUPID things to cut. Education! I am SURE there were better area’s to look at. Like their salaries for instance. I bet they all held on tight to that, along with their perks! Makes me SICK.
Sparty
11/03/09 10:00amWhile I agree that education should be funded as fully as possible people need to realize that if you want things you have to pay for them. Government, like anything else, isnt free so you have 2 choices:
1) higher taxes
2) less programs
You can’t have lower taxes and more programs.
Finally, on to a pet peeve of mine: for crying out loud stop screaming about the pay of the legislature as a means to “solve” the budget crisis.
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wow
11/03/09 11:12amSpartan68 and MP are some of the reasons why education is broken in the first place. Instead of breaking out some awesomely uniformed opinions, what not study the field from the inside. To slander teachers and unions is an absolute joke. It is this sort of thinking that will keep perpetuating inequality in American society and fostering so many of the problems that plague poorer states like Michigan today.
Chris
11/03/09 12:56pmPlease educate yourselves and quit depending on inaccurate information as your platform to complain.
If people understood the process and how the state budget works we would not have to deal with all the cries for help.
It is mind blowing that people give nearly 30% of their income to taxes and have no idea how they are distributed.
Below is the link for the Higher Education budget summary:
http://www.legislature.mi.gov/documents/2009-2010/billanalysis/Senate/pdf/2009-SFA-4441-N.pdf
If you want to go to college...
11/03/09 1:00pmpay for it yourself.
spartan68 to wow
11/03/09 3:32pmwow: if you expect only the public schools to make your children critical thinkers, then don’t expect to exit wage slavery anytime in the next five generations of your bloodline.
History
11/04/09 9:10amIf you look at the history of higher education in America, when people ‘paid for it themselves’, only the wealthy went to college. Because the wealthy make up such a small percentage of the American population, most of the people who have gone to public universities like MSU, UM, Cal-Berkeley, and other excellent schools would not have a college education.
The undergraduate colleges at private universities have a fraction of the enrollment of public universities.
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Be happy, or leave.
11/04/09 11:08amThe Military is always an honorable and justifiable way to pay for your education.
What are ways to lower the cost of higher education?
Maybe we need more of an old-school American work-ethic?
You know, those guys that worked 10 hours a day gladly to support their families and they didn’t complain about it.
I don’t mind paying taxes to help make my country a better place to live in, I don’t know why everyone else should. Move to Mexico.
Take pride in your job, even if it sucks. Make a difference, or at least believe that you are making a difference. Everything balances in time.
Bleed Green
11/04/09 11:29am“The Military is always an honorable and justifiable way to pay for your education.”
…as long as you’re not gay, or, I would argue, a woman (the likelihood of a woman being sexually harassed or raped is absolutely unfathomable).
As for the good ol’ American work ethic, that’s a grand idea, except many companies don’t want to let their employees work 10-hr days.
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tedman
11/04/09 11:31amIt’s amusing to see that some of you actually expect to find a good job in Michigan after graduation. The truth is most of you will end up in or near Chicago were there is mosr opportunity.
Not So Straight
11/04/09 1:41pm“The Military is always an honorable and justifiable way to pay for your education.”
Nah. DADT makes sure that I cannot serve in the military. I am out and not going back into the closet anytime soon.
I work four jobs (only 2-3 days a piece as they’re all I can find) and go to school full time. I am paying for college on my own. Parents don’t give me a cent, in fact I help them.
That $1000 is a lot of money that we needed. Thankfully MSU is helping us out by giving what was rightfully promised. Not sure what a lot of us will do next year. All I know is I am moving out of Michigan the very first day that I am able to. If I wasn’t getting instate tuition, I’d have been out of here by now.
spartan68@hotmail.com
11/05/09 9:46amRe: Not So Straight. For making an open intention of leaving the State of Michigan no matter what, you should be penalized and forced to pay out of state tuition. The residents who pay income taxes to educate their state should not be subsidizing education for the workforce of other states. It’s absurd.
Good for you, you’re gay, I don’t care one way or another. As far as this marriage rights business, is anyone barging into your home and preventing you from having homosexual sexual relations, co-habiting, holding hands, kissing in public, etc.? Oh, that’s right, it’s this business with health insurance.
Tangent alert: lower marginal health insurance for heterosexual married couples is intended as an insurance policy on the generative, biological product of marriage: children!
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spartan68
11/05/09 9:52amThis is why not even domestic heterosexual partners get lower health insurance premiums: the relationships are historically more transitory and produce fewer children.
It’s counterintuitive, but you need to have lower premiums to get more of what you want: in this society it’s healthy children who would make effective pieces of meat in the U.S. military industrial complex.
spartan68, wtf?
11/05/09 10:06amHe/she made a comment about why the military won’t allow him/her to serve in it and therefore can’t use it to pay off school and you go on an anti-gay marriage rant? Wtf? Are you ok in the head?
Not So Straight
11/05/09 10:15amGee thanks for judging me spartan. Someone told us to join the military so that we can pay off student debt. That is not an option for me as I am not going to hide who I am. Fwiw, I come from a staunch military family. Every single one of my male family members has been enlisted and I lost my brother in law in Iraq. Do NOT turn this into a gay marriage issue as it has nothing to do with the topic.
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to spartan86
11/05/09 10:30amSpartan86, do you not pay attention to anyone? Make him pay out of state tuition? Have you seen the news with MI and Detroit having largest unemployment rates? Myself, and most my class woul dhave loved to stay in state, but guess what? We couldn’t. Why stay for no job, or a low-paying job you are overqualified for when you can go somewhere else and get a career. I am sick of this argument from people in Michigan who blame students for “leaving the state”. We are leaving for work!
Outside Looking In
11/05/09 4:56pmI can tell you, as a resident of North Carolina, the education system here is much more organized, helpful, and inexpensive. I pay ~$3000/semester to take 18 credits at NC State, a school just as prestigious as MSU.
Run while you still can. It’s not going to get better anytime soon.