Recent news about public funding for higher education – whether from the state legislature or Congress – is not encouraging. The state Senate has passed a budget which largely funds higher education by imposing a 20% surcharge on international students. Congress has allowed the “Sequester” to kick in, and funding for NIH, NSH, DOE, NOAA, and other major agencies that support research at the University will be decreased.
Whether in Olympia or Washington DC, lawmakers are unwilling to enact progressive revenue to save critical programs, and are targeting some of our most vulnerable rather than our nation’s most prosperous.
We’re standing up for budgets that better reflect our values.
- Send an email to your members of Congress urging them to pass a budget that rolls back the Sequester, preserves science funding, and enacts revenue. This web form will automatically fill in the names and email address of the members who represent your area and deliver it to them.
- Keep an eye out for a statewide petition to be sent to the State Legislature, demanding funding for higher education without unfairly targeting international students. We are working with allies on campus and in the community on this petition, and expect it to be circulating by Monday.