The Michigan Senate needs to put education at the forefront of its priorities
The state of Michigan has been uneasy regarding the Michigan Promise Scholarship.
Less than 24 hours after the state Senate and House conference committee decided to completely eliminate the $4,000 scholarship for post-secondary education, a House committee reinstated the scholarship.
Education lobbyists across the state rejoiced at the news Friday. But there is still one question that needs to answered: How will the state fund the scholarship?
Talk of taxing soda and water bottles has come up, either by one or five cents. Taxes on entertainment and physicians also are proposed to add revenue to the state budget. It still needs to be approved before Thursday, when the provisional budget approved last week will kick in for one month.
All these talks are being productive, although many people are disgruntled by the fact that taxpayers will “have to pay for other people’s education.”
These arguments are fair up to a point. But if that argument is used, then shouldn’t taxpayers be arguing that the proposed cutting of $110 million from the Department of Corrections budget will make them pay for housing criminals that aren’t being productive?
If anything, supporting education over corrections will benefit the state in the long run, something Michigan desperately needs. A more educated work force will not be as likely to commit crime. If education is funded and more people attain degrees, crimes rates will likely go down. This is not a concrete argument, and cannot be tested unless it is enforced.
If taxpayers want to focus their tax dollars on an entity, wouldn’t education be a great cause to fund?
At this point in Michigan’s history, education is the one thing that needs to funded.
The economy is in shambles; General Motors and Chrysler, two of the Big Three automakers, have filed for bankruptcy in the last year. Education costs have skyrocketed; CMU’s cost of attendance has more than doubled in the last decade. Education sure looks like a good investment in the state.
Although $4,000 is not a lot of money in terms of today’s education, it can go a long way at the community college level. At Oakland Community College, the largest community college in the state, a student can take 66 credits with the scholarship over four years, four more credits than required for an associate’s degree.
To some students, the Michigan Promise was more than just extra cash to go to college with. It was a way to make themselves more educated.
And the state should consider doing what it can to help these students help the state.
