I am a US History major and I can tell you that this is not a historical achievement we should be proud of. In the interview, which was on the state budget cuts for USNH, President Huddleston provided startling facts and he let his emotions show.
The article continued by saying how the Senate "got lobbied really hard by private sector institutions and was persuaded to give funds Lynch intended for the USNH to private schools like Dartmouth College, Colby-Sawyer College and Southern New Hampshire University."
Really?! Really?!?!
So, if I'm reading that right (and since I go to a public state school I may not be edumaketed enough to interpret that quote) the New Hampshire Legislature cut funding to the PUBLIC schools and gave those funds to the PRIVATE schools. Oh yeah, because that makes sense. Does the New Hampshire state government understand what the difference is between "public" and "private"? This is a great, and local, example of how the government is being influenced by the private business sector all while hurting the general public. I don't mean to get so political, but this actually happened. Let me repeat that and really think about it for a moment: Private schools received state funding do to "pressure" from the private sector, while the public state schools received the largest cut to public education in the history of the country. If this doesn't prove how influential lobbyists can be towards legislators, I don't know what can.
If this interests you at all, especially if you are a UNH student or New Hampshire resident you should read the entire article I linked to above. UNH really had no choice but to raise tuition this year. When you lose that much funding there isn't a choice. UNH froze salaries (when professors want more money), they had layoffs (Dear Senate, you cost more NH residents their jobs by cutting UNH funding, how'd you not see that coming?) and cut other expenses. The next few years or more could be very tough financially for UNH and our state is only making things worse.
This picture I took back in January says it all. First with a cheap goal in the Riverstone Cup and now with state funding, Huddleston and UNH get screwed by officials while Dartmouth benefits.
Stay classy, not UMassy.
Just another example of how the majority of politicians, both at the national and state level, are out for their own interests and those of the businesses and rich folks that funnel money into their crap-shoot and talking-head political campaigns.
ReplyDeleteStudents will suffer and this fine University will as well.
Pretty damn disgraceful on the part of the NH legislature.
Things like that piss me off so much. Steal from the poor and give to the rich. There has to be something that can still be done...right? I know I'm just wishing on a shooting star thats not there, but that is a completely irresponsible thing that happend. I just graduated in May, and to see something like this happen to a place that I still call home, well I don't know, it just truly leads me to believe that the state legislature is not out for the better of the State, but only for the things it wants...this is absolute horseshit if you ask me.
ReplyDeleteSo how come the USNH didn't have lobbyists to persuade the Senate, just like the private sector?
ReplyDeleteSeriously if you cannot beat them, join them.
Why the hell are private schools getting any state funding let alone when funding for the state schools gets cut?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20110717-NEWS-107170326
ReplyDeleteThe NH Senate did not take funds from the public USNH and hand it over to the private colleges in NH. What Governor Lynch tried to do was take the entire $16.5 million from the state scholarship fund that provides needy in-state students attending public OR private colleges in NH. Scholarships for NH students attending private colleges in NH have been cut to 500,000 dollars (is that really a lot of money) from the 2.5 million they got year last. What Lynch tried to do was also illegal as that money is intended to help pay for kids to through school which is very helpful now due to the budget cuts. A one year fix this money would bring would not be helpful in the long term to the USNH.
the Worst part about this is not the USNH, instead it's the huge burden that the state put on all NH's hospitals across the state. They taxed the hospitals a total of $250 million dollars! And they did this to balance the states deficit budget, which the state had frittered away elsewhere including running ad campaigns for the raising of the debt ceiling. This all doesn't seem like a huge deal but Elliot hospital had to lay off over 200 Ancillary employees; many of which who had been there for over 20 years. CMC is planning to lay off over 100 employees, which is where my family and I work. I can grudgingly pay an intuition hike, but when my family and I both stand to lose our jobs College tuition will be only a minor problem especially in this jobless economy.
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