The Daily Reveille
Friday, August 30, 2013
Opinion
page 9
Jindal, lawmakers need to focus on education SHARE THE WEALTH Jay Meyers Columnist If you were to ask Gov. Bobby Jindal what forces will be driving our state’s future prosperity, he’d likely blurt something along the lines of, “scrap our state and corporate taxes” or “shrink government spending.” And that’s pretty unfortunate news, as the evidence for implementing Reagan-like economic policies to spur growth has proven to be ineffective. It should be noted, however, that conservatives thank God everyday that Americans put zero stock in empirical data or facts that don’t align with their particular ideology. Case in point: last year, Jindal nearly replaced the state’s income and corporate tax with a higher sales tax, despite the claims by most economists that his plan would cause income inequality to skyrocket, with marginal improvements in growth. Ultimately, Jindal’s plan never came to fruition. That’s great, but it wouldn’t be unlikely to see him pull this stunt again. So, if lowering taxes and, by extension, starving the government for public funds aren’t viable
answers, how can Jindal act to boost the economic well-being of Louisiana residents? One word: education. A report released last week from the Economic Policy Institute shows the states that invest most in education are overwhelmingly the states with both higher productivity and median wages. Put another way, the state’s main prerogative should be fostering an environment where high-quality education is accessible and affordable. Unfortunately, Louisiana is not one of those states. Why? Because pursuing post-secondary education — where students acquire the necessary critical thinking and problem solving skills to get a high-paying job — is becoming increasingly unaffordable for the state’s residents. During the last five years, Louisiana lawmakers have allowed education — specifically colleges and universities — to bear the majority of the state’s budget cuts. Put concretely, the Legislative Fiscal Office reported last month that state funding for public higher education has been cut by 66 percent, or a little more than $1 billion dollars, since the 2009 fiscal year. But hasn’t everyone tightened
RICHARD SHIRO / The Associated Press
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal speaks during a rally for South Carolina Republican Gov. Nikki Haley.
their belts a bit and lowered funding for higher education, as a result of the Great Recession of 2007? Yes and no. The American Association of State Colleges and Universities issued a report showing that 37 states plan to actually increase funding for public universities next year. Louisiana didn’t make that list. But we are first on the list for the largest state-funding cuts to higher education, with a planned 17 percent
reduction to next year’s spending budget, according to the AASCU. So, with no end in sight to Louisiana’s damaging budget cuts, how can we ensure every resident, especially those with limited financial means, has a shot at the American Dream? Here are three simple ways. First, the TOPS program needs to return to the function of a needbased program. In 1998, TOPS was transformed
from a need-based program to a merit-based program, causing the state to spend a disproportionally large share of its monetary resources on those who could already afford college while providing relatively nothing to those who need financial help to have a chance at a college education. Second, TOPS should actually award “merit,” moving above and beyond the ridiculous 2.5 minimum GPA requirement to a 3.0 GPA for scholarship qualification. Third, the Go Grant Program, which awards need-based assistance, is significantly underfunded. There should be more of a balanced funding between this program and TOPS, so that all income distributions are represented more fairly at state universities. Gone are the days of Reagan when you could just tell people to get jobs and entice companies with low tax rates. Without a whole lot of money, Louisiana needs to get creative when it comes to education. Jay Meyers is a 20-year-old economics junior from Shreveport, La. Contact Jay Meyers at jmeyers@lsureveille.com; Twitter: @TDR_jmeyers
I spy with many eyes a surveillance culture Mr. Fini Joshua Hajiakbarifini Columnist When Richard Nixon illegally wire tapped a hotel and tried to cover it up, he became the first president in U.S. history to resign. Fast forward to today, and Obama and the NSA’s PRISM Program, the largest surveillance program in history, is spying on ordinary citizens leading ordinary lives. If some student Facebook messages a close friend saying “I think I’m pregnant,” it’s now a record in government files forever. But the worst part? No one seems to care. The government has violated everyone’s Fourth Amendment right to privacy, and there is no major outcry. Now an eerily similar system is being implemented in Louisiana. Operation Recall is a Board of Regents program that seeks to attract the 15 percent of students who graduate and leave Louisiana. They do this by compiling data on the students who leave, including details such as their incomes, majors and lifestyles. What the Board of Regents is trying to accomplish is not necessarily bad in regard to its goals, but it is
a sign of the surveillance culture that is now a part of life. When we hear about government surveillance, we often are suspicious and divided on the issue. The decisions aren’t usually up to us — we all simply live under it. From the NSA to the Board of Regents, this level of profiling and data mining is becoming dangerous.
On one hand, the Board of Regents is trying to boost the economy of Louisiana by compiling a database of graduates who leave and figuring out how to bring them back here. Meanwhile the NSA is violating every American’s right against search and seizure. Since when is this level of surveillance necessary or even OK? It’s no wonder the NSA’s breach of
RYNE KINLER / The Daily Reveille
American civil liberties isn’t on the radar for public reactions. It seems that only those on the fringes of the left and right have this big brother fear as a common grievance. We all should though, because this affects all of us. For example, some employers now check applicants’ Facebook accounts before hiring and judge to see if the prospective hire
drinks too much, gets into trouble or isn’t what the employer is looking for. The surveillance doesn’t stop with hiring. A credit score company called Lenddo now looks at user’s Facebook friends when providing loans to its customers. Kreditech, a German company, compiles data from Facebook, PayPal, eBay and Amazon in order to create a data profile on its customers. At this point, it’s only a matter of time before US companies start doing the same. Edward Snowden, a former NSA agent, said as many as 38 embassies, including those of Brazil, France and Germany, have been under surveillance. These revelations show the program isn’t so much focused on counter-terrorism as much as simply being the world’s Big Brother. Maybe this is just a shift in the zeitgeist of what kind of world we live in today, a world where we are all being watched and monitored. Nothing shows this to be true more than Operation Recall, PRISM, Kreditech and Lenddo. Joshua Hajiakbarifini is 24-yearold political science and economics senior from Baton Rouge, La. Contact Justin Hajiakbarifini at jhajiakbarifini@lsureveille.com; Twitter: @JoshuaFini