Students at UW-Madison are stuck in the epicenter of Wisconsin’s disastrous political discourse. Nowhere in the nation, it seems, is the debate over education as prevalent as it is a few blocks away at our state Capitol. The list of grievances held by the state against the school and vice-versa extends indefinitely: tuition hikes, funding for student athletics, state funding cuts, faculty tenure and more. These issues have evolved from simple economic debates to massively politically charged issues. Republicans, with their majority in both houses of the legislature and control of the governor’s office, claimed victory over the minority Democrats when these issues were voted on in the last budget cycle. But Democratic politicians, perhaps counterintuitively, are racking up victories among their supporters every time these issues are mentioned. Rather than engaging in a true discussion over underlying educational visions, each side of the aisle is entrenching themselves for a political fight, and the only real losers are the students.
As we gear up for the next cycle of budget requests, it seems little will change. The issues at stake are much the same. Unfortunately politicians and their stances haven’t changed either. Our most recent hot topic, extending the tuition freeze, is being met with a typical, binary approach. Republicans want to stop the university system from raising students’ tuition; Democrats don’t, and are calling for more taxpayer funding on top of that. Despite these questions being aimed more at an accounting principle than a political one, they will be argued and answered on party lines. Meanwhile, many fundamental issues within higher education will go untouched and unresolved.
What kind of education (a liberal arts degree or more focused, career-based training), if any, should be subsidized by the government? What should be done to help the students who are paying their own way through college, and just want to get prepared for a good career in the business world? And what about the pre-med or engineering major who feel like their experience at Madison has been too focused and they haven’t been afforded a chance to explore the humanities in a traditional college environment?
Both of those types of students exist at UW-Madison, but their issues receive little of the attention they should warrant as a result of a political atmosphere that is fighting for one-size-fits-all solutions and autocratic means of implementing them. The hypocrisy, to an extent, speaks for itself. Business-minded Republicans, who are typically the first to deride research and tenured, lifelong academics, are also the first to benefit when that activity leads to major scientific or technological advances. And the Democrats, who are fighting for the existence of the humanities and the liberal arts, are the same people arguing for a tuition hike that makes the humanities a more challenging value proposition, and much of this is done under the pretense of making college more affordable, or even free.
Strategies to help college students at Madison and across the country exist. We are entering an age where some form of post-secondary education is becoming a job requirement. That could mean one of a few options, with technical colleges, two-year and four-year universities being the most common. No matter what choice a student makes, each option represents an added cost and hurdle that previous generations didn’t have to clear. Liberals and conservatives alike stand to benefit from addressing this issue. If we were to subsidize a career-track-based college education, the increased revenue of an educated and employed tax base would more than recoup the initial cost of education. In such a system, employers across the state yearning for a better-trained workforce would benefit alongside students who leave school with little to no debt and are prepared for the 21st century jobs our economy is providing. These changes would also benefit our educators and their universities. When students are free to pursue the education they need, professors in the liberal arts get to focus their efforts on engaging with intellectual learners who aren’t just fulfilling requirements. Other options exist as well, but today’s leaders simply aren’t willing to provide them.
Politicians of both parties are more than willing to confidently answer your question about how much money the university system should receive—yet neither really knows the answer. If we actually care about the future of higher education and students engaged in that system, we must change our approach. To have any sort of meaningful discussion, we have to step out of our entrenched ideologies and philosophies that dictate the way we think, and approach the situation with open-minded pragmatism. The size of the UW System’s budget should not be the metric by which we judge success. Our sole goal should be meeting the needs of a student population that has increasingly diverse reasons for attending college, and making sure that they receive the education they need and want, not the one that a political vote has determined they should have.
Jordan is a sophomore majoring in economics. Do you think the tuition freeze is beneficial? Do you think that it is politically charged? Let us know at opinion@dailycardinal.com.
