To the editor:
On Thursday in the Collegian, an editorial was published by a
group of professors educating students on the fact that it is
Republicans that are the reason for funding problems in higher
education. I hope their academic work is not as poor. They claim
that the 2002 gaining of control the Colorado Legislature by
Republicans caused higher education to suffer. Republicans are the
villains that “do not support higher education in Colorado.
Democrats do.”
What they fail to mention is that Democrats only controlled the
Senate for two years. Previous to that, the Republicans held
control of the Senate for 40 years. Similarly, the Republicans have
controlled the House for 29 years. So, for two years the Democrats
controlled the State Senate, prior to a 25-year control by
Republicans of both the House and Senate. It was during these years
that CSU grew into the institution it is today. If Republicans
truly hated higher education then we would not have seen the boom
that occurred in during the 90s where funding increased 70 percent
and former CSU President Al Yates received so much praise.
The truth of the matter is that 2002 saw a major state budget
shortage due to decreased tourism following Sept. 11, 2001,
decreased capital gains tax revenues and a general downturn in the
economy nationwide. Restrictions by the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights
and mandatory increases in education along with Medicaid spending
have caused the remaining 34 percent of the budget to be squeezed
between higher education, corrections and human services. Attempts
by both parties to fix the problem have been blocked by the other.
A single party is not solely to blame.
Jacob Seybert
Second Bachelor’s Candidate
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