Editorial board out of touch with average Michiganian

Yes, Call your legislators! Demand that people paying taxes make it easier for you to attend college.

Find me where in the state/federal constitution it enumerates that the scholarship to college is granted.

President of College Democrats….. no wonder he wants someone else to foot the bill…

“Find me where in the state/federal constitution it enumerates that the scholarship to college is granted.”

Yeah, because the only laws we have in this country are contained in the federal & state constitutions…give me a break.

I tend to be sympathetic with the state govt. though. People love to b!tch about the budget deficit and too much spending, but the minute anything is cut, people complain (first the prison cut-backs, now scholarships).

Look those cuts got to come from somewhere, and like it or not, its the jobs of those on Cap Hill in Lansing to decide where to make them. Here’s to hoping the auto industy finds new life by becoming a global leader in new auto-technology; michigan revives its manufacturing base with wind & solar manufacturing, and we become a world leader in the health sciences.

Believe it or not, there is leadership (private & public, often working together) positioning our great state to do just that. Once that happens, there will be much more funding for higher education, and maybe even some federal measures can be taken to ensure every high school graduate has access to affordable higher education.

Till then, we need to bite the bullet and get through these tough times together

I WILL TELL YOU WHERE WE GET THE MONEY FOR STATE GOVERNMENT: Gov. Granholm should declare emergency powers and abolish the federal income withholding tax. Instead, we shall take half of the proceeds to remain within the state. If Obama’s administration is going to fund the entire federal government by selling Treasury securities to China and Japan, I say to hell with them, no more federal income taxes.

The following is necessary to secure the blessings of liberty:

1.) Secession from the United States on the grounds that they have broken contract through unconstitutional actions

2.) State-ize the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago – Detroit branch office and print constitutional, non-inflating currency in Michigan.

3.) Create a two-tier credit system, infrastructure and utilities and energy get their own system of credit with long term statutory low interest rates.

4.) Sky high tariffs on non-U.S. products to internalize and repair the Michigan economy. The federal government’s sole purpose in the 19th century was balancing tariff duties for economic protectionism.

5.) State agency for widespread publication of health care prices in order to actuate the dynamics of capitalism and necessarily drive down costs of routine services and medical schools.

6.) The abolition of all political parties, as they have amply demonstrated to shut down state governments in California, New York, and Michigan in 2007.

I agree, its counter intuitive to cut education aid when tuition is rising at an unprecedented rate and ‘the knowledge economy’ is repeatedly said to be our future.

On the other hand, Michigan doesn’t produce nearly enough jobs to actually keep college graduates, not to mention graduate level students to stay in Michigan after they finish college, so in theory, why subsidize the education of someone who will use it in another state anyway.

A final note – when education ceases to be accessible to everyone except the wealthy (i.e. middle class can’t educate themselves), democracy and self government slowly die and actually decrease liberty for everyone.

Three virtually unrelated comments, I know –

Yeah, just keep cutting and milking education in Michigan. Maybe someday you’ll end up like Florida where the public education is ranked 48th out of 50 states. People need to stop looking at education as a selfish endeavour bettering individuals and more as an investment to the well-being of the country and economy as a whole.

Eddie,

That comment might hold water if the government monopoly on education were producing decent results. Know what the average ACT score in Michigan was last year? Just over 18. Barely better than 50 percent. Is that really an “investment to the well-being of the country and economy as a whole?”

I think not.

Since the State News seems to think getting rid of our scholarships isnt a big deal, we all need to go to their building and request our student State News tax back.

This isnt something i’m making up. You ARE allowed to do this and it only takes 5 minutes. While its not going to replace what we’re losing, its a start.

..that the Editorial Board is most certaintly out of touch with the average Michiganian! Shame on them!!!
I couldn’t agree more with your statement that “We cannot continue to have a “learning tax” on education that damns our children out of attending college. It is sickening to me that our children in this state continually have to put up with tuition increases, and now scholarship cuts to attend college and better themselves through education.” Your letter was perfectly written!

I didn’t know MSU offered a bachelor’s degree in “welfare queen.”

Gimme, gimme, gimme. I want, I want, I want. To hell with the taxpayers actually footing the bill who are paying this welfare entitlement, right?

Guess it wouldn’t occur to anyone to ask why the costs keep going up, just take the easy way out and stomp your feet and hold your breath as you demand to be given something that is NOT yours and you HAVE NOT earned.

If you are interested in helping with the MSU College Democrats on our campaign to hold the State News accountable, please feel free to e-mail me at president@msudems.org.

Oh brother. A cog in the partisan political machinery that wants to hold someone else “accountable.” Funniest thing I’ve read all day.

Mitchell,

Please demand the state news offers a retraction or else on behalf of students use your role as President to raise awareness of this issue AND please have the first awareness event be organizing students to get their State News taxes back. Perhaps then the State News will realize that taking away critical funding isnt “insignificant”.

Good call, Todd.
Nothing says welfare queen like a high school student with good grades looking for help paying for college.

Mitchell,

What are you going to hold the SN accountable for?? Printing their opinion? Get a grip, some one doesn’t have the same opinion as you and you fly of the handle.

This is ridiculous. This is a teachable moment; one can’t rely on the government for anything, I spent a year in Iraq, actually earning my tuition assistance, yet to see it be omitted from the budget. Get over it, the state owes you nothing, so get over it. I actually served time for my assistance, but they have eliminated it. Welcome to the Granholm adminstration, you morons.

Dave,
Thank you for your service to our country. I doubt you get much thanks around here.

El-oh-el, Tim. Those damn high-performing, high-potential high school students and their desire for a little help to alleviate the astronomical rise in college tuition that is accompanied by more than a decade of stagnant wages and the ever-increasing gap between the haves and have-nots — what a bunch of welfare queens looking for a handout! Damn hippies!

On a serious note, I was able to attend college and graduate school with some “handouts” like scholarships and grants including the Michigan Promise, working full-time or nearly full-time the entire time, and Uncle Sam’s loans. For undergrad, the Stafford loans are capped at ridiculously small amounts — like $5,000 to pay for room and board of your freshman year of college. That doesn’t quite do the trick when it costs double that to go to a half-decent university. I was barely able to pay for college by making up the difference with scholarships and money from my crappy retail job that made me want to dropkick a baby. Private loans aren’t even an option if you’re smart and don’t want to pay ridiculous interest rates.

Now for grad school, Uncle Same will loan you pretty much whatever you want.

I feel bad for these kids. The price of college is getting absurd and there’s no help for kids whose parents aren’t rich or aren’t dirt poor. Going $40k in debt for a $25k job that a trained monkey could do doesn’t really sound worth it to me. Unfortunately, that’s what awaits many college grads.

Amen DAVE

The gov’t doesn’t “owe” anyone a darn thing. People forget that this money has to come from somewhere. Well Jenny, I’m blown away!!!

America,

Yes, the price of college is getting absurd. Why not focus on that instead of whining that we should continue to steal money from people who earn it and give it to kids for college?

“Gimme, gimme, gimme. I want, I want, I want. To hell with the taxpayers actually footing the bill who are paying this welfare entitlement, right?”

The scholarships are actually the people of Michigan working as a collective to encourage the brightest and best students to stay in-state for college and, hopefully, produce the technologies that get Michigan running again.

Michigan needs to evolve to stay competitive in the world economy. Who will do that? College grads. Who will best succeed? Those students who show promise in pre-college coursework. Does it not make sense to invest in those students who may one day change the face of the Michigan economy?

Personally, I would rather pay a thousand dollars to put a kid through school and to keep a crackhead incarcerated. The crackheads will eventually die off. The smart kid pursuing a degree in biomedical engineering may one day save my life.

Correction: the sentence should read:

“Personally, I would rather pay a thousand dollars to put a kid through school than to keep a crackhead incarcerated.

Zeke,

The people of Michigan? Hmmm, I don’t remember voting on any such program. Do you?

Zeke, maybe that biomedical engineer will develope a new virus that kills you.

Geez, Todd. I don’t recall voting on a program to build roads or rebuild roads over in Grand Rapids. I don’t use them so what do I care if they aren’t built or repaired. Of course we all did get to vote for our governor, mayor, representatives etc. so in a way we did vote for these programs. The notion that anything done without a direct vote from the people is silly.
The funny thing is that you paint people as selfish for “expecting” scholarships, but appear to oppose any program that doesn’t directly benefit you.
Of course there is the fact that nobody expects or demands these things. I received numerous scholarships through my academic career, I had no expectation or sense of entitlement to them and if I had not gotten them I probably would have taken a different educational route. The rationale behind providing scholarships has been outlined by many posters, so I won’t lay it out for you again. It’s not a matter of expectations, it’s a matter of public policy.