Spring Break
Education budget cuts are a no-go
Issue date: 4/7/09 Section: Forum
College is already expensive, but the current cost and quality of our education may be in jeopardy.
Based on a budget proposal submitted to the state of Oregon's budget office on Monday, the Oregon University System, in which OSU is included, may face a 30 percent state funding cut for the 2009-11 biennium.
The rumor is that the actual cut will only be cut about 20 percent, but nonetheless, this means there will be major changes to the state of our education over the next two years.
The economy is lagging, and the Oregon budget is stretched and gaping. Negotiations aside, programs and expenditures will have to be cut across the board, and there will be people who suffer.
But a budget cut like this is incomprehensible.
The average tuition at OSU, University of Oregon and Portland State University - Oregon's three largest universities - will rise to about $7,400 a year.
As if paying 12 percent more per year for the next two years wasn't bad enough, with the proposed 30 percent cut, universities may be forced to fire staff and faculty and cut the salaries of the remaining employees by an average of 4.6 percent. Also, universities would be forced to cut 2,500 sections for classes.
Current students will be financially strained, even more than they already are, because of the tuition increase. These students may not receive the quality education we currently have due to the larger class sizes and presumably over-stressed instructors.
The biggest problem, however, is that students may be forced to leave school or not even enroll in the first place due to the expense of an education.
We know things are tight, but come on.
Working for one's education has benefits, and a lot of what one learns depends on what one puts into it; you're not going to ace a class - or learning anything - by not skipping or sleeping through lecture.
But for better or worse, today's students are the future, and giving them the short end of the stick by making their educations a potentially lesser quality and more difficult to come by is not helping anyone.
Now is the time to take a stand and contact your Oregon state senators and representatives. Urge them that funding cannot be cut and tell them that you, as a student at one of Oregon's largest universities, cannot handle this. Oregon residents can find their legislative representatives at http://www.leg.state.or.us/findlegsltr/.
In these economic times, we can't take our education for granted, and we can't stand by and let our futures be swept out from under our feet.
Editorials serve as a platform for Barometer editors to offer commentary and opinions on issues both global and local, grand in scale and diminutive. The views expressed here are a reflection of the editorial board majority. Disagree? E-mail a letter to the editor or guest column to editor@dailybarometer.com.
Based on a budget proposal submitted to the state of Oregon's budget office on Monday, the Oregon University System, in which OSU is included, may face a 30 percent state funding cut for the 2009-11 biennium.
The rumor is that the actual cut will only be cut about 20 percent, but nonetheless, this means there will be major changes to the state of our education over the next two years.
The economy is lagging, and the Oregon budget is stretched and gaping. Negotiations aside, programs and expenditures will have to be cut across the board, and there will be people who suffer.
But a budget cut like this is incomprehensible.
The average tuition at OSU, University of Oregon and Portland State University - Oregon's three largest universities - will rise to about $7,400 a year.
As if paying 12 percent more per year for the next two years wasn't bad enough, with the proposed 30 percent cut, universities may be forced to fire staff and faculty and cut the salaries of the remaining employees by an average of 4.6 percent. Also, universities would be forced to cut 2,500 sections for classes.
Current students will be financially strained, even more than they already are, because of the tuition increase. These students may not receive the quality education we currently have due to the larger class sizes and presumably over-stressed instructors.
The biggest problem, however, is that students may be forced to leave school or not even enroll in the first place due to the expense of an education.
We know things are tight, but come on.
Working for one's education has benefits, and a lot of what one learns depends on what one puts into it; you're not going to ace a class - or learning anything - by not skipping or sleeping through lecture.
But for better or worse, today's students are the future, and giving them the short end of the stick by making their educations a potentially lesser quality and more difficult to come by is not helping anyone.
Now is the time to take a stand and contact your Oregon state senators and representatives. Urge them that funding cannot be cut and tell them that you, as a student at one of Oregon's largest universities, cannot handle this. Oregon residents can find their legislative representatives at http://www.leg.state.or.us/findlegsltr/.
In these economic times, we can't take our education for granted, and we can't stand by and let our futures be swept out from under our feet.
Editorials serve as a platform for Barometer editors to offer commentary and opinions on issues both global and local, grand in scale and diminutive. The views expressed here are a reflection of the editorial board majority. Disagree? E-mail a letter to the editor or guest column to editor@dailybarometer.com.
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