As the school year gets started, many students will grimace as they write out their checks for UW-Madison tuition, due to the tuition increases in this year’s budget. Tuition will be raised again, this time by more than eight percent on the Madison and Milwaukee campuses, and seven percent at other campuses around the state.
The UW System Board of Regents, which is appointed by the governor (except for state Superintendent of Public Instruction Elizabeth Burmaster) passed this tuition increase. While the governor is completely out of touch with students, Burmaster, the only elected official on the Board of Regents, cast the single vote against the tuition hike. Burmaster echoed our concerns by stating she does not support balancing the budget “on the backs of students.”
While Republicans target students and our checkbooks, State Assembly Democrats are looking to keep education affordable for everyone by tying UW and technical-college financial aid increases for students to future tuition increases, allocating additional funds for UW Study Abroad Scholarships and expanding minority undergraduate grant programs to more students. All of this means a more affordable education for more students.
Education is only the beginning of the anti-student agenda being considered by the Republican-controlled Assembly. Recently, a bill was proposed that would allow pharmacists to refuse to fill a patient’s prescription simply because they don’t “feel comfortable.” Clearly put, this would give pharmacists the prerogative to deny treatment prescribed by a medical professional.
The people who would lose out the most if this bill passes would be women. If a pharmacist “feels uncomfortable” filling a prescription for birth-control pills or the morning-after pill, they are free to deny services to that woman. While this would be a major infringement on women’s rights in the metropolitan area of Madison, if a woman were denied services, she would still be able to try another pharmacy. Women in considerably smaller communities, where pharmacies may be fifty miles apart, will be hit much harder. If a woman cannot get her prescription filled near her home, she may be forced to go without. This underhanded way of attempting to control women’s bodies is cause for concern, demonstrating that the Republican agenda is clearly anti-woman.
While state level Republicans are proposing anti-student and anti-woman agendas, on the national level, Republicans are proposing anti-everyone agendas.
Everyone, regardless of political affiliation, will be affected by President Bush’s environmental agendas. Since taking office, Bush has seemingly waged war on the land and water. An estimated twenty-one wild areas may be irreversibly damaged if Bush’s energy plan is executed. In the so-called “Securing America’s Future Energy Act,” Republicans would allow drilling, burning and polluting. It should be called the “Securing Big Oil’s Future Act,” considering that of the $33.5 billion taxpayer-financed subsidies, an enormous 75 percent will go to coal, oil, gas and nuclear energy. While the president touts energy efficiency, only a quarter of the subsidy goes to promoting efficiency or renewable energy sources. Republicans are saying yes to big oil and gas, while saying no to the future of our land.
Democrats proposed a provision to the bill that would have prevented drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which is home to polar bears, musk oxen and hundreds of thousands of migratory birds. Over 70 percent of Americans support prohibiting drilling in the refuge. With this staggering support for the protection of the environment, it is surprising that Wisconsin Republican Reps. Paul Ryan and Mark Green would vote to allow the drilling. It is evident that both local and national Republicans are out of touch with the views held by the average citizen, much less environmentally concerned students.
Tuition, women’s issues and the environment are all areas of concern for students here. With a look at the issues set forth by state and national Republicans, it gets more and more clear who sets their agenda: special-interest groups and monopolizing corporations, not the people. If they were truly looking after our wants and needs, do you think Republicans would be raising tuition? Or drastically reducing access to birth control? Or drilling and polluting in one of the most pristine areas in the country for short-term results that will occur years from now?
The Republicans are looking out for themselves and for big business, not for the environment, not for women and definitely not for students.