Our View

By:

Shandra Jordan

Willow Welter

Christopher J. Ortiz

Last week, Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry spoke with

students at the University of Rhode Island to explain his plan to

increase access to higher education. His plans include offering a

$4,000 tuition tax credit that would go toward college for those

who agreed to go into public service as part of his effort to

broaden access to higher education, according to the Associated

Press.

Kerry’s camp claims 220,000 people were priced out of college

because of the 28 percent increase during President Bush’s term.

This is due to a combined $200 billion deficit states faced, which

made higher education vulnerable to budget cuts.

This plan could be a good idea. Law schools around the country

do something similar to encourage people to do public interest law

upon graduation.

Regardless of whether the plan is ever followed through on, it’s

good that higher education improvements are being discussed during

election season. We need our candidates to make higher education a

priority.

The president, whoever he is next year, may not be able to do

whole lot for state universities financially because he cannot

change state laws like the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights. But if he

makes higher education a priority, state governors and legislatures

are more likely to follow suit.

We hope candidates try to win young votes by talking about

improving access to colleges and making going to college more

affordable.

College students can help swing elections and we are glad

candidates are finally noticing.