The program also fails to help students who are already in school, and it will be slow in implementation. Legislators should be more concerned with a program that would help all students, such as a tuition freeze, the Rachel to college students. This is what we asked for in countless trips to Salem. A freeze would be an immediate solution to the increasing cost of tuition and would make education more accessible to lower-income families. Legislators could also add to this by increasing need-based grants at Oregon universities.
Students are already too much in debt as it is.
With incomes decreasing, the cost of education increasing and government offering few solutions, students are discouraged from pursuing higher education. Token programs such as SB104 do not absolve the Legislature from focusing on the real needs of college students. It should not be up to Legislature to try and figure out what would be best for us or what we want. Unlike Jacob, we know the difference. This editorial represents the opinion of the Emerald editorial board.