WTF: Where’s the funding? Colorado students rally for higher education

An estimated 700 students marched from Auraria Campus to the Denver Capitol Building on Wednesday, March 3, demanding that Colorado lawmakers find alternatives to raising college tuition. Those gathered at the capitol worried that when federal stimulus money runs out next year, higher education will be hit hard, leading to tuition increases and restricted access to education.

Students from all corners of the state gathered at Tivoli Commons, and with signs and banners held high, marched to the capitol. The rally's theme, "Invest in us, we are the future. We are higher education," was chanted along the way.

Andrew Bateman, President of the Associated Students of Colorado (ASC), student leaders from UCD, CSU, CU, PPCC and Metro State, and UCCS's Student Body President Daniel Garcia spoke at the event. The student representatives from across the state shared a similar message: Higher education must be a priority for Colorado representatives and long term, sustainable solutions to higher education funding issues are necessary.

"There seems to be this notion in this country that people have the ability to pick themselves up by their bootstraps," said student Joe Howard from CSU. "But next year, the state of Colorado is cutting the bootstraps from the budget."

Colorado ranks poorly in several measures of higher education funding and with tuition rising nine percent every year, students feel higher education will soon become inaccessible for those of middle and lower income. Drew Johnson, President of PPCC, told The Scribe, "We need to find a way to protect higher ed. K-12 is protected by the Constitution and it is only right that something is also in place to protect higher ed. Community colleges like PPCC and non-traditional campuses like UCCS will lose too many students, and most will have nowhere else they can go."

State Representative Karen Middleton (D-Aurora) told The Scribe she would like to see a P20 Ballot Initiative. This initiative would create an "education pipeline" from K-12 through higher education and dedicates a portion of sales tax revenue to education. Despite the urgent cries for immediate change, Middleton said the economy needs to recover before funding will be available and anticipates 18 months of planning.

High concentration was placed on Colorado Springs Senator John Morse's recently drafted the Higher Education Flexibility Bill. Though students are for tuition flexibility, there is concern over Section 4 which would relocate the responsibility of tuition requirements from the Department of Higher Education to the universities. "The bill removes the requirement that an institution that is an enterprise dedicate a percentage of its revenues to need-based financial aid if the institution increases tuition," the bill states.

Bateman responded, "We support the concept of flexibility but do not support the legislature deferring tuition authority to the institutions. Affordable education is the responsibility of our elected representatives and control of tuition cannot be given away."

Garcia, who attended meetings with senators prior to and during a portion of the rally, told The Scribe that proposed solutions included a four-year plan where each campus would create individual estimates of how much was needed to support a sustainable and affordable campus and have it approved. If, after four years, a campus felt they needed to raise tuition they would need to ask legislation. This plan, Garcia said, would not only allow each campus a measure of flexibility that meets its needs but would alleviate legislation from having to make changes for all campuses all at once.

It has also been suggested that a high tuition, high aid model be implemented. Currently the state of Colorado operates on a low tuition, low aid model. The lower the tuition, the less money is available to provide in aid. If tuition is high, those who can afford to pay it will and those from lower income homes will receive more in aid, legislators felt. The overall goal according to Garcia is to ensure that students don't have above a certain amount of debt.

Next steps discussed included organizing a Government Relations Day for students in the CU system during which students would participate in a forum with their representatives and making sure to reach out to voters and inform the community, Garcia said.