University of Iowa students protest tuition hike

[Joanne98]

Source: Press Citizen

University of Iowa students Friday rallied outside the Old Capitol in protest to proposed tuition increases.

They say the state needs to stop raising tuition and instead contribute more public money to fund public higher education.

"It's easy to look at and say 5 percent or 6 percent tuition increase is not that much, but when you look over the last 10 years its increased by more than 100 percent," said Shawn Gude, 21, a UI senior from Des Moines, and part of the group called Students for Affordable Education, which organized the rally.

"It's easy to see students are getting squeezed and education is just not affordable any more for students or their families," he said.


Read more: http://www.press-citizen.com/article/20110212/NEWS01/102120311/UI-students-protest-tuition-hike

[LiberalEsto]

1. UNC students are also protesting tuition

I wonder how many colleges and universities around the U.S. are seeing student protests about tuition increases.

My alma mater, Rutgers U, got sneaky about tuition increases many years ago. The board of governors voted on them after spring semester was over and hardly anyone was on campus.

[rurallib]

2. yesterday a study came out that showed 133 corps in Iowa pay no taxes

and even get money back.
I put up a post in the Iowa Forum on this:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=152x28186

corporations get money back on the backs of these kids

[xchrom]

3. +1

[jwirr]

5. I would guess that a lot of those corporations are farms. Years ago

they were encouraged to incorporate so they could save money. These are not the kinds of businesses we think about when we say corporation. However, they should still be paying to support the government that pays for the road, the schools, the libraries, the community hospitals, etc. Not to mention that farm workers do not make a lot of money and are probably getting things like food stamps, health care.

[rurallib]

6. These are research tax credits, so I am guessing not farms

The ten or so listed are certainly not farms( Rockwell-Collins, EI DuPont, Deere .....)
Appears to me that the corps have found a loophole large enough to drive a yacht through.

eta: http://www.iowa.gov/tax/taxlaw/RACreport10.pdf
list at the end of those that got $500,000 +

[jwirr]

7. Okay - I just wanted to be sure we knew that it could be.

[d_r]

4. in every state

public universities are moving from publicly supported to publicly located. States have slashed funding to universities for years, and tuition has gone up to make up some (not all - there has been a lot of job loss, hiring freezes, pay freezes to cut costs also) of the cuts that have come from state governments.

Parents are going to have to decide what side they want to be on. Do they want to keep telling politicians cut-cut-cut, or do they want their children to go to college? That's what it will come down to.