Wednesday, July 04, 2012

So, our democrat legislature/governor gave our universities an unlimited ability to raise tuition. What did they do with it?

Now the question becomes: what is the Governor going to do about this?

Because of the bizarre student loan program and other federal enslavement mechanisms, tuition is skyrocketing into an unrealistic stratosphere, and our children are graduating from schools with what amounts to a second mortgage to show for that frequently worthless piece of paper hanging on the wall.

Our schools, who are limiting in-state enrollment as they abandon their primary purpose in support of the almighty dollar, have raised their tuition or had it raised as much as 20% over each of the past 5 years or so.

Our economy is in horrific shape... still... and the hierarchy of, say, Western Washington University, hasn't done much to share in the sacrifice. In fact, pay raises are the order of the day there... and what's the shared sacrifice in that?

Limiting the cost of tuition should be like limiting the cost of property taxes: inflation only.  That way, as we climb out of the wreckage of Obama's economy, we MIGHT be able to afford to help our kids go to school without burying them in debt.  Further, out-of-state students should only be allowed in after all the IN-state students who WANT into one of our universities and who make the qualifications are allowed in, that foreign students are not allowed in at all, and that illegal aliens are, well, not only not allowed in, but are arrested and deported from the schools in question.

These schools, who pay exorbitant salaries to a wide variety of staff and administrators, need to be reminded of who they are supposed to serve and what their purpose is.  Clearly, they've mostly forgotten, and here's an example of one schools action so egregious that it pisses off the Governor... who is the one responsible for allowing this in the first place by signing this scam into law:

She seems surprised that this can happen, or would.  But then, such surprise shows that our governor is a grade-A moron, because a blind man could see this coming in a minute, since she and her lackeys have handed the keys to the money pharmacy to a bunch of confirmed money junkies. And, of course, the only question in this instance is this: what is she going to do about it?

These people truly do live in a vacuum.  And their incessant whining and huge increases in funding as, for example, the University of Washington, who is wasting $250,000,000 on replacing their football stadium so the rich and the administration can get their luxury boxes and the students can get screwed out of their prime seating (After all, it's a football stadium on a university campus for their football team... who gives a rat's ass about the students?) and see their ticket prices tripled as they subsidize the cocktail parties of the nouveau riche who sacrifice SO much for them...  they all need to remember first, who they are SUPPOSED to be here for and second, that it is not our job to subsidize their luxury.

The Seattle Times

Gregoire, others criticize pay raises for WWU professorsGov. Chris Gregoire and other political leaders decried a recent agreement giving Western Washington University professors XX pay raises amid a tough economy.
By Brian M. Rosenthal and Andrew GarberSeattle Times staff reporters
PREV 1 of 2 NEXTGov. Chris Gregoire has written to WWU President Bruce Shepard, whose faculty negotiated three years of raises.

Gov. Chris Gregoire has written to WWU President Bruce Shepard, whose faculty negotiated three years of raises.

Gov. Chris Gregoire and other political leaders say recently negotiated pay raises for Western Washington University professors send the wrong message in tough economic times. 
In a harshly worded letter to Western President Bruce Shepard, the governor criticized the university's decision to raise salaries 5.25 percent this school year and 4.25 percent each of the following two years in addition to boosting department-chair stipends 15 percent. 
The move comes as tuition is set to jump 16 percent this fall in response to state budget cuts. 
"Your agreement seems to ignore the shared sacrifice that other state employees in general government and institutions of higher education have made during the Great Recession," 
Gregoire wrote in the two-page letter, noting a pay freeze for other government employees and predicting Western's move "will hurt current and future efforts to protect and increase funding for public higher education." In a blog-post response, Shepard explained the raises came after administrators cut programs, including little-used classes and concentrations. Officials agreed to increase salaries because they believed it would help them retain and recruit quality professors. 
But the governor wrote that she and lawmakers "never intended significant salary increases for faculty employees at the same time" as tuition hikes.
More:

"The quality professor" scam?

If they, or any other public employee doesn't like the pay or benefits, they can always feel free to quit.

1 comment: