2% or 21%

by: danscripps

Mon Jul 16, 2007 at 00:53:04 AM EDT

Worse, the combination of tuition increases and declining state aid for higher education means that the real increase is in the amount students have to borrow to finance their education, putting a college degree that much further out of reach for too many Michigan students.  According to a story reported by The Center for Michigan, while tuition has increased by 39% and state assistance has been slashed by 14%, the amount students have had to borrow in recent years has increased by an astonishing 47%!

All of this brought back memories of the shrill, knee-jerk reaction from the Senate Republicans and the Detroit News editorial board (but I repeat myself) to Governor Granholm's modest tax proposal earlier this year.  Remember, the governor proposed an extension of the sales tax - at a cost of two pennies on the dollar - to cover services.  This 2 cents would have allowed fewer cuts to Michigan universities, and almost certainly, smaller increases in tuition for Michigan students and their parents. 

Remember, increasing the number of college graduates in Michigan is something nearly everyone in Michigan agrees is central to any sustainable economic recovery.  As we move into the New Economy, it will be harder and harder for our state - and Michigan workers - to compete for these jobs of the future without the skills, training and education relevant to this knowledge-based economy.  And yet the continued cuts to university budgets and refusal to give universities the certainty they need to forecast for the future produces massive disincentives for young people to do exactly what we hope they will - go to college, graduate with a degree and stay here in Michigan to raise their families and build our future. 

The choice in the ongoing budget debate is not whether our costs will go up, but how.  Are we willing to pay a modest increase in taxes that all of us share in to build our future and get Michigan moving again, or are we going to pass the buck to make the skills we know we need to compete that much more expensive to obtain?  How our representatives answer that question will tell the citizens of this state much about where our priorities are and whether we care more about our children's future than our present situation.