EDITORIAL: Snyder's next step should be restoring funding to higher education
Gov. Rick Snyder promised there would be no more cuts to education in his State of the State Address on Jan. 18.
The reaction from educators, students and other individuals in Michigan was, no doubt, a sense of relief, but this does not guarantee an affordable education nor does it make up for the damage that has already been done.
Most college students are already thousands upon thousands of dollars in debt, and this announcement should hardly appease students enough to forget how screwed over they have gotten in recent years by destructive cuts to education.
With average college tuition closing in on $10,000 per year at Central Michigan University, the better question to be asking Snyder is what plan he has in mind to help compensate for the money we have already spent on our ongoing educations — educations more and more students are considering applying to out-of-state jobs.
According to an article from The Washington Post, “Brain drain: States that lose the most college students,” Michigan is listed in the “Brain Drain” category, with a net loss of 1,071 students per year.
Nationally, about three-fourths of students choose to complete their education in their home state.
With a blind future about which road higher education is traveling down, students tend to agree with one of two drastic opinions. The first: Students who realize a simple undergraduate degree, rocking a hefty price tag, no longer satisfies employers seeking new hires. Continued education is what gives students an upper hand in the now more-competitive-than-ever job market. But what happens to those who can hardly pay off loans for their undergraduate degrees?
The second: Some are choosing to veer more toward playing a game of risk. This group includes students who receive little to no education after college but start out in a job and work their way up in hopes of gaining a respectable career without the mess of loan debt trailing with stress for years.
While for some years we were beginning to think success in life was now almost wholly dependent on receiving a college education, it’s no longer boldly evident, and for many, evaporating all together as being considered an option.
Moody’s Investors Service does an annual survey released in January, recently reported about in The Chronicle of Higher Education, that stated, “A majority of colleges — those dependent on tuition or state money — will continue to face challenges in the next 12-18 months. Those challenges will, in part, stem from the public’s scrutiny of rising tuition and from pressures to keep it down.”
With these statistics, it’s no surprise college students already feel a sense of defeat, making them question the day-to-day attendance and effort put into classes and wonder if one day it will all be worth it.
Snyder deserves to be thanked for promising no more cuts to education, but most of us are so far in the hole it doesn’t seem to matter anymore — unless money starts appearing back in our pockets.
