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Image Copyright of SCAN-PAC (http://www.scanpac.net) |
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EDITORIAL by DREW VETTER SGA Vice President of Student Affairs It is undisputable that public higher education in the State of Maryland is under siege. In response to the drastic cuts made to the University System of Maryland, Tim Daly and I have founded the Student Citizens Action Network to thwart this offensive.
The University of Maryland received a D- for affordability from the National Center for Higher Education and Public Policy. Even before this latest offensive on public higher education began, the University of Maryland was the eighth most expensive school among public institutions of the Association of American Universities. FROM SCAN Although the University System of Maryland makes up less than 10% of the state’s budget, we have been asked to bear over a quarter of the state’s cost containment actions. The financial crisis in the state of Maryland is being unfairly balanced on the backs of middle-class students and SCAN refuses to let that continue to happen. Tuition has increased 33% in the last two years, and I would bet that by the spring of 2004, tuition would have gone up a devastating 40% in a short two-year span. This means that Maryland’s families will be paying upwards of an additional $2,000 in tuition and mandatory fees. Maryland is approaching the breaking point at which families can no longer afford to educate their children, which should be a right for all and is a violation of the American Dream. SCAN is a bipartisan organization that advocates on behalf of public higher education in the State of Maryland. SCAN doesn’t blame Republicans or Democrats for the attack on the USM, we simply want to see the leadership of the State of Maryland make public higher education a priority again. Although there is sometimes a lack of leadership for higher education in the General Assembly and the Board of Regents, the Governor is still the primary reason that tuition has increased 33% over two years. He has proposed a flat budget for the USM for this year, which due to inflation actually amounts to a cut. He refuses to look at alternative funding such as raising taxes on Maryland’s most wealthy citizens. Governor Ehrlich also refuses to consider closing corporate tax loopholes that allow Maryland corporations to funnel taxes through shelters in Delaware. He would rather pander to his bigwig corporate funders and forget his modest roots. Not all middle-class Maryland citizens can get football scholarships to Princeton. Some families need to pay for college, and the Governor is rapidly putting access to higher education out of reach.
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Maryland has a Republican governor who happens to be terrible on the issue of higher education. If a Democratic governor were responsible for pulling $121.7 million out of the University System of Maryland in a matter of months, you better believe that the students involved with SCAN would be carrying out the same actions. In an attempt to convince the General Assembly to support higher education, SCAN will be targeting key members of the legislature. In fact, most of the members that SCAN will be targeting are key Democratic swing votes in the legislature come budget time. Through a balanced campaign targeted to both Democratic and Republican leaders, we hope to preserve access to an affordable college education. This campaign will come in the form of grassroots activity in crucial legislative districts, as well as a media campaign in those areas. We will be knocking on doors, stuffing mailboxes and infiltrating the airwaves in an attempt to educate Maryland’s citizenry of the injustice that the State is doing to public higher education. Clearly, Governor Ehrlich is not the only person who can make cuts to higher education. In fact, for the three months that the General Assembly is in session, the Governor is not even a factor. It is up to the legislature to decide how much to cut the budget of the USM. . Additionally, the Board of Regents is the body that actually raises tuition to compensate for lack of state support. SCAN will not stand for some of the more extreme proposals such as that of Regent Richard Hug, who would like to double tuition over the next five years. SCAN will hold our Regents accountable to being advocates of the USM, not puppets of the Governor such as Regent Hug, who raised $10 million dollars for the Governor in the last election.
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EDITORIAL by BRYAN SCHUY The Terrapin Times Editor-in-Chief The Terrapin Times would like to commend the founding members of SCAN PAC for raising awareness of the state’s cuts to higher education as well as the unprecedented and dramatic tuition increases being forced down students’ throats by the Board of Regents. On a campus that is alleged to be full of apathetic students, a Student Citizens Action Network seems appropriate. OUR TAKE SCAN Pac is a great idea, but one is left wondering if it will truly be bipartisan? So far, it has only shown to be a continuation of Tim Daly’s attacks upon Governor Ehrlich, touting the Democrat line to close corporate loopholes. I will keep my fingers crossed and hope that SCAN PAC turns into the bipartisan effort at promoting higher education that its leaders promise it will be.
A
two-term Democrat and former university professor, Paris Glendening left
Maryland in the worst financial mess it’s seen in quite a long time.
While it’s natural to blame incoming Governor Ehrlich for budget cuts, we
must also recognize that Ehrlich has presented options to curb the budget
deficit, including a slot machine proposal (which is typically a liberal
idea). Unfortunately, partisan politics got in the way then and Speaker
Michael Busch halted the slots initiative from proceeding to the House
floor. This led to a state deficit with no new incomes and forced the
state to make cuts to a lot of programs, including higher education.
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