Who Does That Help v. 3?

[This post takes up a thread I’ve been writing about on my personal blog since the January APSCUF Legislative Assembly in Harrisburg.  To see the original post, click here; to see the letter I wrote to Governor Corbett and posted as an Open Letter, click here.]

On March 8, I wrote the above referenced letter to Governor Corbett, asking him to answer a simple question.  If his proposed attacks on, I mean cuts from the PASSHE budget were to pass the Legislature and take effect, who do they actually help?  To date, ten days later, I’ve received no reply and am not the least bit surprised. 

I’m raising that here, on the new APSCUF-WCU blog, because I think it’s a question we should all be asking the Governor, his staff, his office, and any legislator who supports even one penny in cuts to the PASSHE budget–who does it help?  How does it benefit students?  How does it benefit employees?  How does it benefit the communities in which our universities operate?  How does it benefit the schools systems for which we train a sizeable chunk of teachers?  How does it benefit employers in PA if fewer people can go to college?  How does it benefit anybody’s ability to participate in civic/political life, to make informed decisions, to think carefully and talk well, to understand math and science? 

Who benefits from tuition that might have to go up as much as 30% to cover the barebones cost of operating the system? 

How does it benefit taxpayers across the state to see the public university system gutted, which will ultimately lead either to more expenses for all of us, or a shattered economy around the state?  Who benefits from that?

Who benefits from the Governor’s insistence that he won’t tax gas extractions or corporations that do business in PA?  Not the taxpayers who not only continue to pay our own taxes, but to cover for those who don’t pay at all (and I’m not talking about poor people whose incomes don’t produce tax revenues)? 

Who’s benefitting here, Mr. Governor?  The answer to that seems really, really clear to me, and I’m waiting for you to make even a vague attempt to dissuade me. 

We’re waiting…