Youth Uprisings in the U.S. Will Mimic European Youth Uprisings, Just as Designed by the NWO
"Where is the moneyed class today? Why aren’t they doing something: the people who made billions, millions. I’m sort of thinking of Paulson, of Rubin. Why don’t they get together, and why don’t they organize a national solidarity fund in which they call on all of those who made these extraordinary amounts of money to kick some back? I was worrying about it because we’re going to have millions and millions of unemployed, people really facing dire straits...There’s going to be growing conflict between the classes, and if people are unemployed and really hurting, hell, there could be even riots!" - Zbigniew Brzezinski, Brzezinski Warns of U.S. Riots Due to Economic Crisis, March 3, 2009Michigan College Students Protest Higher Ed Cuts
March 25, 2011AP - About 200 college students waved flags from the state's 15 public universities and held signs saying "Put the money where our minds are" during a Thursday protest of proposed cuts in state aid to universities.
The students were the latest group to rally at the Capitol against Republican Gov. Rick Snyder's budget and policy proposals. Snyder wants to cut more than 20 percent of state funding for the 15 universities in the budget year that starts Oct. 1. He has offered to limit the cut to 15 percent for universities that keep 2011-12 tuition increases below 7.1 percent.
Students participating in the rally said tuition is already too high. Some lost a state scholarship worth up to $4,000 when lawmakers eliminated the Michigan Promise Grant in 2009, and many have had to take out student loans.
Speakers at the rally said it's hard to reconcile Snyder's goal of reinventing the economy with his plan to cut state aid that would help keep universities affordable for the state's future workers.
"Tuition's been going higher and higher and higher," said Cardi DeMonoco Jr., president of the Student Association of Michigan. "When will the legislators realize this isn't the area to cut?"
DeMonoco said the small but spirited crowd came from as far away as Michigan Technological University in the Upper Peninsula and as close as nearby Michigan State University.
Rep. Mark Meadows, an East Lansing Democrat whose district includes Michigan State, told the students he sided with them.
"Does anybody here think a 22 percent cut to education is too much?" he asked the crowd, noting that other areas of the budget haven't been cut as much.
Tuition and fees at public universities averaged $9,410 this academic year. They've risen 80 percent since 2002-03, far more than the 15 percent increase in inflation over that period.
Even without Snyder's proposed cut, state funding for university operations has dropped 12 percent over the past eight years, or 37 percent once inflation is taken into account, according to the House Fiscal Agency.
The governor has proposed keeping funding for community colleges as the current level in the next budget, but he wants to cut spending for university operations by 15 percent, or $222 million. He'd cut 5 percent to 10 percent more from universities that didn't keep their 2011-12 tuition increases to below 7.1 percent, giving $83 million instead to schools that didn't exceed the limit.
Snyder, who holds bachelor's, master's and law degrees from the University of Michigan, has frequently talked of the importance of higher education and his support for universities. But in his Feb. 17 budget message, he said cuts are needed in light of Michigan's estimated $1.4 billion budget shortfall. He challenged universities to "implement reforms that will keep tuition in check and restrain spending."
University leaders say they've decreased spending and are being faced with the double whammy of trying to serve more students with less state money. Saginaw Valley State University President Eric Gilbertson told a Senate committee Wednesday that the school in University Center got $4,500 per student in state aid 10 years ago, but just $3,200 this year. That amount would drop to $2,800 under the governor's budget proposal.
Michigan State President Lou Anna Simon said her school was expecting a 13 percent decrease, given past budget cuts. She called Snyder's much larger decrease "brutal."
DeMonoco said higher education needs to be a top priority in Michigan.
"The Legislature's not funding it enough," he said. "How are you going to reinvent Michigan without higher education?"
Students Protest Higher Ed Cuts
Cuts may lead to higher tuition, they sayMarch 24, 2011
24 Hour News 8 - A few hundred students from public universities across the state rallied at the Capitol midday Thursday to protest proposed funding cuts for higher education.
Gov. Rick Snyder's budget proposal would mean a 22% cut in aid to state universities, said Michael Boulus, head of the Presidents Council, State Universities of Michigan. If universities keep tuition at a certain level, they would receive a smaller, 15% cut.
Aaron Booth, head of Western Michigan University's Western Student Association, was among the protesters.
"We're Michigan's future," he told 24 Hour News 8. "And if you don't educate the future of Michigan, Michigan is just going to keep going on the down hill that it's on right now."
Among student concerns: the potential of fewer faculty members or programs -- and higher tuition.
"My worry is that a lot of students aren't going to have the opportunity to go to college or afford to go to college," said Jennie Hlady, a Grand Valley State University freshman who traveled to Lansing for the rally.
The governor's budget proposals are being debated in legislative committees.
Rep. Bob Genetski, R-Saugatuck, chairs the state House higher education subcomittee. The decisions ahead are tough for everybody, he said, but Michigan needs to cut spending to create more jobs.
"If we keep spending as we have been spending, you can get every college degree in the world and there's not going to be much out there for you," Genetski said. "If everyone gets a degree and gets them cheap but has to go to another state to find work, I don't know that we've done our jobs."
University presidents have said cuts could lead to higher tuition -- and 24 Hour News 8 wanted to know how current tuition compares.
Right now, a new student's tuition at Michigan's two largest public universities is higher than that of flagship universities in neighboring states, such as Indiana, Ohio and Wisconsin (see below for exact tuition and fees).
As for state funding, a report from the State Higher Education Executive Officers group showed Michigan universities rely more on tuition than universities in nearly all other states. Michigan ranks sixth-highest for tuition reliance in the country, according to the group's Fiscal Year 2010 report.
Committees may continue debates on budget plans, but no budgets are expected to come up for full House or Senate votes for the next two weeks.
Snyder has said he'd like to see all budgets in place by May 31.
Students protest higher ed cuts: woodtv.com
2010-11 resident full-time tuition and required fees for one year at selected public universities
(Junior and senior students or students in certain programs may pay more, depending on the university):
- University of Michigan $11,837
- Michigan State University $11,205
- Western Michigan University $9,306
- Grand Valley State University $9,088
- Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison $9,050
- Univ. of Wisconsin-Milwaukee $8,150
- Univ. of Wisconsin-La Crosse $7,688
- Univ. of Wisconsin-Eau Claire $7,406
- Indiana University $8,124
- Purdue University $9,070
- The Ohio State University $9,420
- Miami University (Ohio) $12,198
Sources: President's Council State Universities of Michigan, university data Compiled by 24 Hour News 8
Michigan State Universities Faculty and Academic Staff Salary List 2006-07
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