WKU Student Regent Jay Todd Richey responds to the higher educations funding cuts.
I was extremely excited to hear Governor Bevin announce a 100% replenishment of lottery funding for higher education financial aid, because the state legislature diverted approximately $30,000,000 of that funding from CAP and KTG (both need-based financial aid) to the General Fund just last year to finance the rest of Kentucky’s economic woes. That’s about 62,000 students who were not eligible to apply for need-based funding because that pool ran out. However, when you look past the Governor’s rhetoric, there will be a 100% replenishment of lottery funding in the future, but it will not be filling the $30,000,000 hole that was created when we lost our need-based financial aid. Instead, the Governor will create a new scholarship for workforce development. I am looking into exactly what this will mean for Kentucky students trying to afford the exorbitant costs of a 2016 college education and I am glad the lottery funds are back in the hands of students, but I’m disappointed to see that we lost $30,000,000 from need-based financial aid.
As for budget cuts for the university, it’s going to be brutal. I am very fearful that these cuts will result in a tuition increase, significant cuts to WKU programs, and/or termination of faculty and staff positions. I will not stand by and let American universities, especially in Kentucky, be privatized. Finally, I will add that there is a place in Kentucky, the U.S., and around the world for both engineers and French literature majors. Workforce development is a very vital aspect of college—perhaps the most important for many students—but many students, like myself, use college to establish a theoretical framework for how they see the world. WKU can afford any student the ability to pursue any path. So I disagree with the Governor that college is exclusively for workforce development. I look forward to continuing this conversation with anyone who would like to speak with me, and I will continue to represent all WKU students in each vote I make on the Board of Regents that will be in their best interests moving forward.
Richey also forwarded a pdf he authored “concerning why we need 100% restoration of lottery funds for need-based financial aid.”
Source: Jay Todd Richey, email attachment.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_eRY5QJvXyqVDMzN25ITUxfanM/view?usp=sharing
