Students ask Gov. for more higher ed funding
Student leaders carrying giant “RX” forms converged in Salem Monday to present Governor Ted Kulongoski’s office with a “prescription for higher education,” a request for an investment in higher education in the 2007-09 state budget.
With the Oregon Legislature deciding in January whether or not the Oregon University System will receive a requested $192 million in additional state funds for the 2007-09 biennium, students involved in the Oregon Student Association also asked the governor’s office for more money: $188 million for the Oregon University System and $101 for the state’s community colleges.
The “prescription for higher education” was part of a statewide push by student government coalition group the Oregon Student Association to get students to sign a letter to Gov. Kulongoski in the name of higher education.
James Sager, Kulongoski’s Education and Workforce Policy Advisor, met with the students in Salem on behalf of Kulongoski and said that education is the governor’s top priority.
The letter also asked Kulongoski to keep tuition increases no higher than the median family income, to support Oregon’s regional universities, to increase the number of faculty staffed at Oregon schools and faculty pay, to invest in enrollment growth, and to ensure that Oregon’s colleges have "safe, reliable and technologically advanced facilities.”
Over 10,000 students enrolled in Oregon schools signed the letters to the governor.
Sager said Kulongoski has three areas of educational focus, including a 10 percent or better raise in education funding, an emphasis on aiding the ability for students to transfer between Oregon universities, and a program that would extend the Oregon Opportunity Grant.
