Today’s Genius: “I know … let’s cut from education!”
An exciting page in New York state’s budget saga: A proposal by Gov. David Paterson to cut aid to higher (and secondary) education.
(Again!).
Part of the governor’s plan to reduce the state’s $3 million deficit, he announced Wednesday, is to reduce spending — apparently, by cutting $686 million in education aid by the end of the fiscal year on March, 31, 2010. The reduction would be on top of other proposed cuts of $287 million to Medicaid, and $184 million to other health care programs and mental hygiene, according to the Syracuse Post Standard.
Under the proposal, about $62 million will be cut from higher education, according to the University of Buffalo’s Spectrum, which said the governor’s proposal also includes a $26 million cut from the Tuition Assistance Program, which will affect awards for students currently enrolled in the program.
TAP is run by The New York State Higher Education Services Corporation (HESC), and helps students pay for tuition at approved colleges in New York state.
Cutting this much from the budget midway through the year has struck a sour chord with many lawmakers in Albany — especially cuts like those proposed for the TAP, which would negatively affect students currently benefiting from the program and could even prevent them from continuing their degrees.
“We’re going to try to adjust the cuts to reflect the ability [of school districts] to sustain the cuts,” Mr. Paterson said at an Albany press conference. “Most of the schools have reserves that can absorb this, and if they see fit, they should certainly use them.”
Paterson has said the move would bring Albany back to “fiscal responsibility.” But part of fiscal responsibility is setting a budget and operating within it. Setting a “reach” budget and scrambling later to cover a deficit isn’t responsible, or fiscally sound, at all.
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