Organization: University of Illinois at Chicago
Date: Wednesday, 16 Dec 1992 17:38:10 CST
From: <U38026@uicvm.uic.edu>
Newsgroups: misc.education
Subject: Clinton's Education Policy

What is the Government Doing About Public Education?

Public education in America is under attack.  Government funding of
higher education is declining, with no end in sight.  In addition,
public universities are being transformed from centers of education and
learning into research centers for private corporations.  This dual
attack of decreasing funds and changing priorities is bringing about a
qualitative change <197> on the one hand, tax monies earmarked for
public education are being used to provide free research facilities for
the corporations, while, on the other hand, the working people are being
denied access to university education.

Federal and state governments are continually slashing funds for
education.  During the Reagan administration, more than $5 billion was
cut from federal funding for higher education.  Federal aid to help
working class students pay tuition and fees was also slashed.  Social
security benefits for college students were eliminated.  George Bush,
the <169>Education President<170> has continued the policy of gutting
education funds.  He has cut more than $10 billion in Pell Grants and
other forms of financial aid.  State governments are also cutting
funding for university education.  Between 1978 and 1988, for example,
the proportion of the state budget allocated for higher education in
Illinois was cut from 34% to 26%.  Last spring, Illinois permanently
added a 10% surcharge onto its state income tax, allegedly to fund
higher education, yet this fall all Illinois state colleges and
universities had their budgets severely cut back.

The Democratic candidate, Bill Clinton, also has plans for education.
In order for American businesses to remain competitive on the global
marketplace, Clinton insists that public universities must re-orient
their priorities.  (Clinton's plan is outlined in his report to the
national Governors' Association Task Force on Jobs, Growth and
Competitiveness:  <169>Making America Work<170>).  Clinton writes:
<169>States need to promote technology development in a manner
consistent with their priorities, and establish working partnerships
between educational and research institutions and business to focus on
and accelerate that research.<170> Clinton wants public universities to
help businesses build research and development centers on campus, and
allow faculty release time to work on the commercial applications of
research.  <169>States should support incubators for new firms that are
commercializing technological advances.  In addition to...low-rent
space, office support, computer access, and on-site technical services,
these specialized incubators can provide technological expertise and
management services such as patent and licensing information.<170> In
addition to providing all these services gratis to the private sector,
Clinton also wants states to <169>review university policies on patent
rights to allow public institutions and researchers more control over
commercialization and licensing of findings and provide for the
retention of earnings from patents.<170> All of this is to help
businesses increase their profits by providing laboratory facilities and
equipment free of charge or at low cost, and a low-paid labor force of
graduate student assistants.  The universities invest millions of
taxpayers' money in research, and the private corporations reap the
profits.

Another aspect of this plan is to focus higher education on high
technology fields, in order to meet the needs of business.  Clinton
argues that we need to graduate more <169>world-class<170> scientists
and engineers in order to be competitive.  He suggests that states
should <169>create an independent skills corporation [to] function as a
broker between industry and training institutions... the corporation
would be administered by a board primarily from the private sector.<170>
In other words, the business owners should decide what should be taught
at our universities!

The result of Clinton's program is to restrict public education to what
the capitalist corporations need <197> an elite force of technicians and
engineers <197> while closing the doors of the university to the masses
of working people.  It is clear that the objective of this plan is to
make public universities serve the interests of private business.  It is
equally obvious that all the hype about budget cuts due to the
recession, etc., is only to divert attention from what is really going
on.  There is money, but where is it being spent?  The priorities of the
government and the university are to spend more money on research, and
less on public education.

All of this amounts to fraud <197> to diverting public funds, slated for
education, into the pockets of private businessmen.  Under this plan,
the resources of the universities would be more and more directed toward
research, while the instruction of undergraduates would be pared down to
the minimum.  While the capitalist corporations owe billions in unpaid
taxes, they want to appropriate the taxes paid by the working people for
their own interests, i.e., building research laboratories to increase
their profits.  At the same time, the workers who are bled dry by the
tax collectors are unable to send their children to college because of
skyrocketing tuition costs and shrinking financial aid.  The cutting of
funds for financial aid to students, and rising tuition costs are
already restricting who can obtain a college education.  Clinton's plan
is to use public universities for the education of an elite class of
technicians and engineers, while denying education to the masses of
working people.

The University of Illinois at Chicago is a living example of the
implementation of this plan.  The present campus, built in 1965 as a
result of the mass pressure of the working people who demanded
affordable public universities, is being turned precisely into a
<169>Research I<170> university.  This year, while UIC will spend more
than $85 million on research ($65 million of which comes from tuition
and state-appropriated funds), tuition continues to skyrocket and more
and more working people simply cannot afford the price of admission.

It is the masses of people <197> the working people <197> who should
determine where their tax money is spent.  While the federal government
has unlimited funds for bailing out the S&L thieves, it keeps cutting
back funding for public education.  And even the little money earmarked
for education is increasingly winding up in the pockets of the big
corporations.  The politicians who are making these decisions are
nothing but appointed servants of the capitalist class <197> they are
not at all accountable to the masses of people, who pay the bills.

The people must come out and make their voice be heard.  The first
priority of the government's budget must be to meet the needs of the
masses.  Money allocated for education must be spent on education for
the people.  Public education was founded in this country because the
people demanded that education be <B>a right for all.<D> It should not
now be turned into a means for generating greater profits for private
business.  The working people demand that society should move forward,
not backward.  University education should be available to all; it
should be expanded and broadened, not restricted and cut back <197> and
the resources exist for this to be possible.

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"An affordable and qualitative education is a right, not a privilege."

Newsgroups: misc.education,alt.discrimination,soc.culture.african.american,soc.women