Home > Graduation 2004: Pomp and Crummy Circumstances
By Arianna Huffington
It’s that time. And I’m not talking about cicadas. It’s
graduation time, and all across the country high school
seniors are tossing their mortarboards into the air and
heading off to face a future filled with hope, promise - and
soaring college tuition and fees.
It’s one of the few areas in which the GOP really has taken
the country to a higher level.
The cost of a college education at a four-year public
university has risen a devastating 35 percent since George W.
Bush took office. He promised to be "the education
president," but in what we now know to be the classic Bush
bait and switch, he then did just the opposite, delivering a
tax-slashing economic agenda that forced public colleges and
universities in all but one state to raise tuition in 2003.
As an added little gift for the new grads, the Bush
administration’s latest budget-cutting guidelines will lead
to a $550 million reduction in federal assistance to those
college students in need of financial aid.
Happy graduation, kids! Enjoy your decades of indebtedness -
at least those of you who are not forced to forego college
altogether.
How did we get to the point as a society where low taxes are
more important than providing the opportunity for as many of
our children as possible to get a higher education? Where
we’d rather shut students out of college classrooms than shut
down the tax shelters that are costing states billions in
revenue each year?
Nowhere are these perverted priorities on greater display
than in California, where Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is
steadfastly refusing even to consider closing corporate tax
loopholes or raising taxes on the top 1 percent - even in the
face of a multibillion-dollar budget deficit. Instead, he is
looking to balance the budget on the backs of the most
vulnerable - including the state’s college students.
He has put forth a budget proposal that would, among other
things, slash $660 million from the state’s public colleges
and universities, increase undergraduate tuition over the
next three years by more than 30 percent (this on top of a 40
percent tuition increase since 2002), deny admission to
25,000 qualified students, cut financial aid, lead to larger
class sizes and fewer course offerings, and eliminate state
support for outreach programs that help prepare disadvantaged
students for college.
Other than that, it’s very education-friendly.
How we respond to this draconian hatchet blow to the heart
and soul of California’s longstanding commitment to higher
education will tell us a lot about ourselves. It will help
define what kind of a state and country we want to live in -
and what kind of society we will leave our children.
Has the American Dream been replaced by a Dystopian
Nightmare? Has the Land of Opportunity morphed into the Land
of "I Got Mine, Who Cares About Yours"?
After relentlessly and rightly impressing on the young people
of America the idea that a college education is the doorway
to the jobs of the future, will we reward their years of hard
work by slamming that door in the face of tens of thousands
of them - including many who graduated near the top of their
class?
It would be a dreadfully shortsighted, and ultimately
destructive, move. Allowing higher education to become harder
and harder to afford is not only hurting students - it is
damaging America’s long-term economic prospects.
Today a college education is no longer a luxury, it’s a
necessity. It’s the source of our future employment base and
it’s what will allow us to remain competitive in the global
marketplace. On average, college grads earn $1 million more
over their lifetime than students who don’t continue their
education past high school. In other words, penny-wise, pound
foolish.
But it’s not just a matter of dollars and cents. Education is
an essential part of the well-being of our democracy. People
who are undereducated often feel unequipped to participate in
the political process.
The good news is that there is still time to stop this
bloodletting. The question is: Will Democratic leaders in
Sacramento have the necessary backbone?
In Washington, it took three years of Bush walkover victories
and the insurgency of Howard Dean to give national Democrats
the spine transplant they so desperately needed.
Back in California, it’s the students themselves who are
providing the mettle: Over the last six months, a student-led
movement has spearheaded the protest against cutting the
rungs in the ladder of opportunity. They’ve marched, lobbied,
signed petitions and gone to jail.
While barnstorming college campuses around the state last
month with State Treasurer Phil Angelides, who has proven to
be a true leader in this cause, I was inspired and impressed
by the students’ passion and refusal to accept the idea that
denying them an education is an acceptable way to solve the
state’s fiscal crisis.
It’s time for the rest of us to join them atop the moral high
ground and demand that our leaders stop sacrificing America’s
college students - and the public interest - while protecting
the narrow interests of those at the top. What kind of
America do we want to live in? There’s still time to decide.
Arianna’s new book is Fanatics and Fools: The Game Plan for
Winning Back America