5 ms·
Alaska defunds scholarships for thousands of students ahead of fall semester
- applecrazy 7y agoThis is absolutely terrible, purely from the perspective from the students. Having your four years of hard work devalued like that, just because of a political move, must really suck. Worst of all, it's past the matriculation deadline for most universities in the United States, so these students can't even attend other schools that have offered them scholarships, leaving them to either drop out or go into debt.
- H8crilA 7y agoWell the oil revenues did fall down a lot. Alaska has no state income taxes. Someone has to pay for that, and killing the Alaskan universal (very) basic income is too unpopular of a move. This is something worth remembering once more countries and regions will try introducing UBI.
- applecrazy 7y agoTrue, but the optics of this move are worse than some other alternative. A state representative was also quoted in the article saying that putting the education fund in the sweep was not necessary. Pretty sure they can reappropriate funding from somewhere else if they tried to (and it's not like their scholarships are particularly large, $3k to $4k a year scholarships given to a limited number of people will not break the bank).
- x86_64Ubuntu 7y agoOther states have no income taxes, and Dunleavy ran on protecting and growing the Alaska Permanent Fund. And as to your UBI FUD comment, why do we need to find a reason? Cutting public education is well inline with right winged US policy.
- H8crilA 7y ago> why do we need to find a reason? A reason for what?
- istorical 7y agoThis is seriously the most cruel twist of fate for these students who received merit scholarships to Alaska schools and accepted offers there.
- orf 7y agoThe core of the issue: > The House Republican minority has said it will not vote for the reverse sweep (and other spending from the Constitutional Budget Reserve) unless the rest of the Legislature approves a traditional Permanent Fund dividend, which this year would be worth $3,000. And: > The rest of the Legislature is not willing to do that, because that dividend, combined with current levels of government spending, would require overdrawing from the Alaska Permanent Fund, reducing its value in the long term. I guess party of fiscal conservatism ~has truly died~ never existed at all apparently.
- Spooky23 7y agoIt never existed.
- orf 7y agoIt’s hard to argue that it never existed at all, because it definitely did at one point. But they have morphed into something else entirely whilst managing to keep the fiscal responsibility moniker in the minds of a lot of voters.
- lowtolerance 7y agoIt never existed. “Conservatism”, as it as it is used in the US, has never referred to fiscal conservatism except whenever it’s convenient to an argument. Conservatism is and always has been about preserving the status quo.
- rxhernandez 7y agoI am genuinely interested to know more about this time when it did exist. Do you have some reading you could recommend?
- Spooky23 7y agoMaybe pre-WW2. Once in power, the most “principled” modern penny pinchers never seem to have a problem spending money. Nobody voluntarily gives up power, and power equals money.
- lettergram 7y agoAlthough that $5000 is a lot, it is a relatively small group impacted: > Gonzales and 2,500 other students in Alaska lost the scholarship because the state is no longer funding it. Also was it a scholarship or grant? Grants were cut in Illinois the same way. As a tax payer I’m also okay with that. Now, I’m not okay with the deadline. They should be given at least 12 months notice, OR at least prior to the registration period
- vkou 7y ago> As a tax payer Every man, woman, and child in the United States is a tax payer, unless they live off the grid, in the woods, in a cave.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- endtime 7y agoPretty sure my kids (4, 4, and 1) don't pay taxes.
- VeninVidiaVicii 7y agoIf your four-year-olds have ever bought anything (from a vending machine) they've paid taxes.
- black_puppydog 7y agoAnd even they might have a clear and important opinion on topics like these, given that they might want to get an education at some point and would probably have an issue with being promised money to then have it taken away later through no fault of their own.
- chillwaves 7y agoDo they purchase goods? Do you purchase goods on their behalf? The point is every household is a taxpayer household. The statement "as a taxpayer" is not helpful.
- thanhhaimai 7y agoMy education was funded by scholarship and two part time jobs. I know for sure that without the couple thousands from scholarships I wouldn't make it. The pressure to quit school and focus on the next paycheck/bill was very high. Now I'm (gladly) paying more in taxes to the state of California annually than I've ever received from scholarships. I think it's not a wise choice to trade off the future earnings for short term Permanent Fund dividends.
- seanmcdirmid 7y agoMany of those kids educated in Alaska universities will be later paying Californian income taxes also. It isn’t that simple, anyways, from the Alaskan government’s perspective (if you are concerned with just optimizing state revenue and not the moral problem of not serving your residents).
- chris11 7y agoCutting higher education funding and scholarships won't help with brain drain.
- seanmcdirmid 7y agoSure, but it means economic growth or revenue increases are not the primary motivator for not cutting them.
- aejnsn 7y ago“How to definitely lose graduates to the other 49.”
- bdcravens 7y agoGiven the distance, probable they'll stay gone. (though maybe that usually happens anyways, for those who are ambivalent about Alaska)
- SwellJoe 7y agoThe GOP seems to have become (if they were ever anything else, and just hid it better in the past), across the board, a party of petty attacks on anything that helps anyone who isn't rich. This isn't about fiscal responsibility, as the holdouts wanted more money for the dividend. It's about hurting people least able to cope with the fallout. It's a sickness and it's happening in every state and at the national level. Socialism for corporations and the wealthy, capitalism with a stacked deck for the poor.
- suff 7y agoUniversities are in a massive debt bubble right now. They need less funding, not more.
- dabbledash 7y agoI’m not sure if that’s fair in this case. I wonder how many low income people in Alaska depend on that dividend? (I literally don’t know enough about the economics and politics of Alaska to say.)
- SwellJoe 7y agoThat may be. I'm also pretty ignorant about Alaska's economy and how that dividend impacts low income communities. It just seems petty to yank this money from students at the last minute like this...and, also bad for the future of Alaska. Getting and keeping talent in a state that is dark and frozen for months out of the year is a tough sell. It also seems like it is a more progressive use of money than a universal payment, since it will tend to move money from higher income taxpayers to lower income students so those students are less likely to be saddled with overhwelming debt when they finish school. One thing I do know about the dividend is that it fluctuates wildly. I don't remember the details of why or what math is used to calculate it, but it can be as low as a few hundred dollars or as high as a few thousand dollars. If people are relying on it (as I'm sure some do), that's kind of a capricious randomness, as well.
- chillacy 7y agoI'm a bit torn since in this case of specific details, it's clearly wrong to take scholarships away from bright students. On the other hand, only 33% of Americans graduate with a 4 year college degree, far more get a GED and work retail or trades. If we're talking about how to help the average american, trade schools or other income support (like a bigger dividend) would be more beneficial to these groups.
- guelo 7y agoCalifornia had repeated fake financial crises until we decided to kick the Republican charlatans out of power.
- 100throwaway 7y agoHas anyone asked why the funds were there in the first place? It’s so easy to agree with and complain about things taken away. The pattern of left leaning hacker news contributors begin blaming political parties is again seen here. It seems we should look into whether the funds should have been allocated there in the first place. Is it ok to re-evaluate? Were the students aware that grants, like anything in life, are never guaranteed? This seems a lesson universities would overlook.
- souprock 7y agoLike every bureaucracy that is threatened, they will cut where it is most visible and most painful for the public. They will do this even if the cuts don't save much money. Cutting something hidden, like administrative overhead, just isn't going to happen. Doing this the ethical way: 1. Use loans (bonds?) to cover the immediate shortfall for students that are currently enrolled or accepted. 2. Raise tuition on future students to better represent actual cost. 3. Eliminate departments that would take a loss. (students unwilling to pay the needed amount) Since this is a state school, there is also some responsibility to the people of the state: prioritize keeping departments that contribute to the industry of the state, with relatively few students leaving the state after graduation. So maybe keep geology and petroleum engineering, while eliminating sociology and art. Even computer science could be eliminated if those graduates nearly all leave for California.
- Spooky23 7y agoThe ethical way would be to not operate the government in a way where you hold your citizens hostage. Public universities don’t typically have bonding authority without legislative authority to borrow and appropriations to spend. Alaska is a land of riches. Even the most regressive regimes like Saudi Arabia are investing in higher education. Worshipping the cult of ignorance is a uniquely modern American thing.