When The “Hope and Change” Crowd Are Against “Change”

Some of you have probably heard about the “radical” pieces of legislation currently being debated in the Arizona State Legislature, which involve everything from abolishing the state’s Medicaid program to giving the state the power to impound the vehicles of illegal immigrants. Predictably, in the coming weeks (or months) these bills will put Arizona back in the crosshairs of the elitist MSM and I fully expect my state to be smeared in extremely vile ways just like last year (oh wait, its already happening).

I don’t expect Senate Bill 1115 (or SB 1115) to generate as much press as the other bills dealing with Medicaid and immigration but it will still be attacked by leftists across the country and just as viciously. SB 1115 would abolish the Arizona Board of Regents (ABOR), an independent body that oversees and sets policy for Arizona’s three universities. In place of the ABOR, each university would have it own board of trustees that would set tuition levels and the general direction of the university. Additionally, SB 1115 would change how universities are funded by replacing the current funding model of doling out cash based on number of students with one that issues a voucher to each qualified college student which they could use at one of Arizona’s universities and that issues funding based on a series of metrics that include things like graduation rates. This introduces an important element to higher education in the state of Arizona: REAL competition not based on some arbitrary ranking in Newsweak.

Of course, people who currently serve on  the ABOR hate it. They have traditionally been liberal academics and “moderate” state leaders who have continually endorsed tuition hikes, despite the increasing economic difficulties in Arizona instead of forcing cuts on bloated university administrations. They have also opposed allowing students with concealed carry permits to carry concealed on campus, among other positions that are in line with typical liberal beliefs.

Worst of all though, is that they have defended and further entrenched a system that is not benefiting the state of Arizona or Arizona’s students. ASU’s six-year graduation rate is 55 percent and its four-year graudation rate is around 30 percent. All those students are subsidized to an extent by the state. The school president likes to carp about putting “15,000 new graduates a year into the work force” but sadly many of those graduates wind up in low-paying jobs and struggle to pay back the debt they amassed to pay for their degree. That is if they can even find a job. In terms of contributing to the local economy, even that is limited. Just drive around the edges of ASU and U of A to see how much the university has “enhanced” the local community.

I don’t know what the chances of success are for SB 1115. But I hope its passage will be the first step in helping to reform higher education in Arizona and diminish some of the left’s power in academia. But it is only one step.

Category: Politics