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Looney: Budget puts back the “Elites Only” sign back on higher education.
At a time when other states are finding ways to make access to higher education more affordable or even free, the Connecticut General Assembly’s latest budget would axe a scholarship program that helps thousands. That is unacceptable to New Haven’s state lawmakers.
The lawmakers delivered that message at Gateway Community College Wednesday in the wake of the passage of a state budget that would, among other things, eliminate the Roberta Willis scholarship program and other higher education funding. (Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has vowed to veto the budget but incorporate some of its ideas in a negotiated next version.)
The scholarship program helps pay for the education of some 15,000 students across the state, 9,000 of whom attend community colleges like Gateway. Six hundred students at Gateway are scholarship recipients. Under the current iteration of the budget, all that financial aid would vanish.
“This is an appalling attack on higher education in our state,” Senate President Pro Tem Marty Looney of New Haven said in condemning the budget, a Republican plan that mustered enough support from Democrats in the State Senate and the House of Representatives to break through the months of a budget logjam at the state Capitol.
Looney said if lawmakers allow the current budget to stand, it would return the state to the days before World War II and the G.I. Bill when only affluent elites could afford to go to college. He pointed out that the most recent budget to pass the General Assembly is the first one that Republicans have supported in more than a decade. That should tell people where those lawmakers priorities are, he said. (Republicans criticized Democrats for not making enough cuts, relying instead of raising some revenues.)
“People give lip service to the idea of economic development and preparing us for the future economy where the only jobs that will be available are jobs that require high levels of skilled education,” Looney said. The Republican budget proposal “undermines our capacity to educate our students for those future jobs.”
Gateway SGA Pres. Wali: Students are scared.
Abbur Wali, Gateway student government president, said that many of his fellow students are afraid of what the cuts to state aid could mean for their ability to complete their education.
The 31-year-old father of three recently completed his first degree in liberal arts and sciences this May. He has plans to complete a second degree in railroad and engineering sciences next May. Though he has reached his credit maximum to receive state aid now, and is currently paying for his education out of pocket, he said he could not have completed that first degree without help from Connecticut.
“All of us have different situations,” he said of the typical community college student. He said some students come from families that can afford to pay for school while others come from families where there are no parents and they have no jobs. Without state aid and the generosity of donors to Gateway’s foundation, many of the students who’ve come through the doors wouldn’t make it.
“Here at community college, it’s not that much assistance,” he said. “I get emails from students all the time with different concerns. They’re scared.”
In addition to the threat to the Roberta Willis scholarship program, higher education faces threats to the funds that support remedial education services. Twenty-one-year-old Gateway student Narasha Moffett, a native of Guyana, said if it had not been for the classes she took to learn English, she would not be able to pursue a degree in human services. The sophomore wants to go into the field of social work.
“It would be devastating,” she said. “I’m one of the students that took the remedial classes when I got here. Students would be devastated including the international students who depend on those classes to learn English and make their education better at Gateway.”
Walker.
New Haven State Rep. Toni Walker, who serves as the co-chair of the Appropriations Committee, warned that the budget headed to the governor’s desk cuts $27 million for the community college system in 2018 and another $47 million in 2019.
“These are cuts that we cannot sustain if we expect the people of Connecticut to thrive,” she said. “You are part of the state and we need to provide you with the supports that are necessary to your success.
“The most egregious part of this is that it is not a discussion about what is important for Connecticut,” she added. “But it is about what is important for people that don’t represent this community.”
Porter.
New Haven State Rep. Robyn Porter, an alumna of Gateway, said she knows first hand the value of being able to work and advance her education while being a single parent. She said she fears that Connecticut might be headed for what states like Illinois have seen after it experienced a budget crisis: a loss of freshman enrollment among students in state colleges and universities.
“We’re taking the carpet from under the feet of the people that are actually going to propel us in the direction we’re looking to go in this state,” she said of the proposed budget cuts.
Winfield.
New Haven State Sen. Gary Winfield urged the Gateway students gathered for the press event Wednesday to contact the lawmakers who supported the Republican budget.
“The Connecticut state colleges and universities system is the system for opportunity,” he said. “If you can’t enter [that system] because financially you can’t do so, and there’s no help for you, then we’ve killed off opportunity.
“The state of Connecticut should not be involved in creating budgets that kill off opportunity,” Winfield continued. “We should be involved in creating opportunity for every single one of you young people who are looking to do something that I think is beautiful for this state, which is .. .a full participant in our system.”
Winfield suggested that the state’s budget crisis also is a political one in that voters are getting a chance to see what Republicans would do if they gain control of the legislature: make budgets that prioritize numbers over the people those numbers represent. For those who value higher education, economic development, and even public safety, he said it is time to step up for those priorities even if it means taxes go up.
He also suggested that voters contact the Democrats who broke with their party to support the Republican budget to let them know that there are consequences for their actions. “Because what they’re hearing right now is that ‘You’ve done a good job’ because the people who are going to be active are the people who think they’re taxed to death, who think the taxes do nothing,” Winfield said.
“The Republican budget raises taxes,” Winfield said. (The Republican version, for instance, cuts earned income tax credits for the working poor.) “The focus of the taxes are on those at the very bottom, so what we need to do is what has been called for in this press conference. We need to not be disaffected and say, I’m upset about what happened and I’m just going to go sit at home and be upset about it.
“We need to be active,” he added. “We need to change the paradigm in which the three individuals we’re talking about and those in the House get to come back to the next discussion. We need to let them know.”
Lemar.
New Haven State Rep. Roland Lemar said that a cut to the community college system sends the message to future employers that the state is not open for business. He said many community college students are Connecticut high school graduates who “find a home here, get a start here and become part of the workforce of the future here.”
“You are the people who will stay here,” he said. “We’re all proud of Yale University down the road…but you are the people that make my community better. You’re the people that will send your kids to the same school as my kids.
“We should follow the lead of other states in which they are saying free community college for all our residents, not cutting, not eliminating scholarships, not making it harder to graduate,” Lemar added.
This news is more than heartbreaking. I consider Gateway more important to this city than all of Yale which has shown no humanity to this town (except for the law school ). I am asking Yale to do the right thing and rescue their counterpart.
James Baldwin rightly predicted that life for the well-off would become even more miserable than that of their victims. Most New Havenites are blind to this now but will get kicked in the ass later by the consequences of this mistake and many others or their children will. In this society, education and compassion are right up there with food and water needs. I am very afraid.