· The
City and State deficits are the result of tax cuts. Tax cuts since
1994 have reduced city and state revenues by $15 billion per year.
This is roughly equal to next year’s budget deficits. Working
class New Yorkers did not benefit from these tax cuts, so they
should not be asked to pay for them now with tuition hikes and
increased subway fares.
· CUNY
has already paid its fair share. CUNY is starved for resources today
because its City and State funding was already cut by 30% throughout
the 1990’s.
What evidence of this de-funding do you see
in your day to day experience at CUNY? (i.e. run-down facilities,
lack of adequate faculty and staff, etc.)
· Financial
aid is no protection against tuition hikes. CUNY’s poorest
students are dependent on financial aid to cover the cost of the
hikes. As the fight to prevent TAP cuts last year proves,
financial aid in New York is never a guarantee. It must be
reauthorized every year, and every year new cuts are proposed. Far
from being a protection for poor students against tuition hikes,
retaining financial aid is a constant battle that students must
fight every year.
What has your experience been in trying to
secure your financial aid?
· Tuition
hikes hurt CUNY. When tuition was instituted in 1976, even with
financial aid, CUNY lost over 50,000 students. When tuition was
increased by $750 in 1995, CUNY lost 8,000 students.
How will the $600 increase in tuition
affect you?
· Tuition hikes are eroding the whole idea
of public higher education. More than ever a greater proportion of
CUNY’s budget comes from individual students’ tuition and fees.
In 1990 tuition accounted for 21% of the budget. In 2000 it
accounted for 37%. As more and more of CUNY’s budget comes from
tuition, it becomes harder and harder to call it truly a public
university.
· Our
public universities are already over-priced. New York’s community
colleges are already the most expensive in the US as a share of
family income. New York’s public four-year colleges are the nation’s
third most costly.
How does the cost of your education affect
your life?
· CUNY
is the smartest investment New York could make for long-term
economic health. People who graduated from CUNY between 1970 and
1997 pay an estimated $708 million per year more in City and State
taxes than if they had not earned a college degree. Their annual
spending is $4.6 billion higher than it would be if they had not
gone to college. CUNY graduates go on to provide services for New
York, start business, and create jobs.
Students -- What do you plan to do once you
graduate? Faculty -- What have some of your students gone on to do
with their CUNY education?
