College Students Protest Paterson At SUNY Geneseo
Chanting “More than 10 percent, give us 100 percent” and “We are not a piggy bank,” about 60 students protested outside Gov. David Paterson’s visit to SUNY Geneseo today.
Paterson later addressed the students over their concerns about the state’s decision to raise tuition by $620 a year, with 90 percent going back to the state’s coffers rather than being reinvested in the schools.
Paterson has argued that in previous tuition increases, the state kept all the money. But this year, 10 percent is going back to the colleges.
Here’s video of the protest from the Democrat and Chronicle.
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They may be correct, though they may not know why. Most colleges today are the high schools of our grandparents’ generation. The way our educational system is presently run, teachers get a nice, nice package, but 70% of the students come out knowing nothing of value, and indeed, can’t even spell or point on a map to the Pacific ocean. That’s after twelve consecutive YEARS in a classroom. Since we’ve managed to thoroughly bungle this whole “education” thing, the kids probably are entitled to public college at taxpayers’ expense. Unfortunately, many come out of another four years of college without being able still to spell or find Illinois on a map, in that maybe they have found the Pacific ocean by then. The alternative is to make the primary and secondary schools intellectually valuable, but that seems far beyond our will and abilities.
The students aren’t protesting the K-12 educational system. They are protesting the fact that Albany is using SUNY tuition money to make up for the state deficit. And to the poster previous to my post, what are these “nice, nice packages” for teachers to which you refer? Professors get paid less than public school teachers, despite higher degrees and being strapped with horrendous school loan paybacks.
Maybe students could point out certain features on a map (though that pales in importance to what is most needed in the workforce: math skills, writing abilities and comprehension of written as well as verbal material, etc) – but at SUNY-Geneseo, we cannot even afford a map. We cannot even afford to copy handouts for our students and we are working with computers that are no longer supportable or upgradeable.
When should this all stop? NOW! Albany is constricting the hope for tomorrow.
As a former professor, (though not at a state school,) I appreciate that you are looking out for me and my former colleagues who, of course, have advanced degrees in a field other than “education,” as is the general norm for many overpaid and over-perked high school instructors. My point, of course, is that many college seniors cannot spell, write, perform math beyond the eighth grade level, or find Illinois on a map. Too often, many of the colleges of today are four year vacations from reality and probably should be tuition free since they really take the place of the high schools of generations past. If the (college) student is self-motivated and serious about learning, new worlds are revealed to him or her, and miraculous things can result. Would that this were more often the case .