It’s far from breaking news to say the economy is drastically affecting the way everyone operates, and the government isn’t an exception. When economic conditions go south and taxes aren’t raised, the government has no choice but to cut back spending. That means no program or department is safe from having its budget reduced or eliminated all together.
Unfortunately, education is often one of the areas that sees major cuts.
The Michigan Senate voted Tuesday to ax the Michigan Promise Scholarship as well as severely cut back the state’s need-based grants.
The Michigan Promise is a merit-based scholarship from the state that provides up to $4,000 to 96,000 students who qualified. Currently, 11,000 MSU students rely on that scholarship money, meaning they will be scrambling to find funds once the cut takes effect.
The truth is funding has to come from somewhere, and as much as we don’t like education money being cut, it’s unavoidable.
This won’t be the first cut an education program has seen, and it definitely won’t be the last. But when cuts absolutely have to be made — as they do now — a scholarship such as the Michigan Promise is a good place to start.
The scholarship is awarded based on merit, which means the students who succeed on the Michigan Merit Exam stand to earn more money than those who don’t. Any money to help with tuition is surely welcomed by these students, but it seems most of them don’t absolutely need it.
Seventy-five percent of recipients don’t require any financial aid to attend college and the remaining 25 percent still can be eligible for need-based scholarships. It’s great the state awards money based on which students do the best academically, but it’s not completely necessary.
When the state needs to make a choice like this, it should provide funding to those who can’t afford college over those who can.
It’s not as though need-based grants escaped budget cuts, which saw an $18.8 million reduction.
People always seem to have an unenthusiastic reaction to raising taxes, but it is a way to fix a problem like this. Citizens love the idea of having a government provide things such as cops, schools and health care for them as long as they don’t have to pay more when April comes around. The government is like any other service — you get out of it exactly what you pay into it. If citizens don’t choose to pay for college scholarships, then they’re going to be cut.
Ultimately, it won’t change much for students receiving the Michigan Promise. A recent high school graduate may have to go to a less expensive school, which might mean their education might suffer. But the government has prioritized on getting students who can’t pay for college into classrooms, exactly as it should.
The scholarship is a great luxury to have, but a luxury nonetheless.
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