The Daily Citizen, Dalton, GA

Education

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  • College students from across the state gathered in Atlanta and marched to the capitol on March 15. Spencer Zeiger, dean of the School of Social Work at Dalton State College, speaks to students.

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March 20, 2010

Higher education funding is at center of debate

Rachel Brown Dalton Daily Citizen

DALTON — More than 4,000 students, including several at Dalton State College, have banded together to push back against proposed state cuts to higher education funding.

“Education in general, be it K through 12 or higher, should never be cut from the public sector, especially in times of economic downturn,” said Will Avery, a graduate student at the University of West Georgia and a leader in the student-led movement to fight against the proposed budget cuts. “Really, higher education should be the last thing to be cut, and for that matter, any public sector services shouldn’t be cut.”

Students all across Georgia have had a right to be concerned about higher education funding.

State lawmakers at one point had proposed cutting nearly $600 million from the Georgia University System’s budget, but more recent estimates indicate the cuts might be closer to half that amount. The cuts are part of a larger effort by lawmakers to trim close to $1 billion from the roughly $17 billion state budget to balance spending with revenue that has declined because of the slow economy.

About $2 billion of the state’s higher education budget comes from state funding.

Not everyone agrees with students’ lobbying efforts, which have included at least two staged protests at the capitol, one of which was a mock “funeral” for higher education as students carried coffins and dressed in black.

Benita Dodd, vice president of the Georgia Public Policy Foundation, said his organization recently proposed ways to cut $363 million from the higher education budget by focusing on trimming waste and making the system more efficient. The conservative-leaning think tank’s president, Kelly McCutchen, was a member of Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle’s Senate budget task force that suggested ways to balance the budget.

“We don’t believe the solution is to throw more money at (higher education),” Dodd said. “We think they should be looking at the efficiencies in the system.”

Suggested cost-saving measures include offering more Internet classes, offering remedial classes at two-year schools rather than every college and university, negotiating bulk contracts for vending and cleaning services to get better deals and raising the cost of university tuition.

It’s that last point that students up in arms.

Raising tuition is exactly what Avery said students don’t want to see. He said he receives a tuition waiver and about $200 a month for his job as a graduate research assistant, one of the positions on the statewide chopping block.

“If that gets taken away, I’m out of the program with student loans to pay back,” he said.

Avery said a $1-per-pack cigarette tax could help the budget situation, but he added officials should look at trimming at the top before they discuss cutting programs, combining college campuses or laying off professors.

University of Georgia President Michael Adams recently said he might take a cut to his more than $600,000 salary and that other administrators might do the same. He did not back off proposals to eliminate the 4-H program or make drastic cuts to the State Botanical Garden.

Georgia’s state constitution requires tuition free public education for everyone prior to college, but it’s less specific about funding for higher education. Some say higher education is a right, while others say it’s a commodity to paid for like any other.

Dodd said students shouldn’t feel singled out in the budget cutting process.

“Everybody’s hurting in the state right now,” Dodd said. “Every agency is hurting, and I think legislators are trying to be as cautious as they can in making these cuts, but there are some cuts that are going to hurt. ... I think we should look at this as a great opportunity instead of such a big challenge.”

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

 

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