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.
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