My education is important to me. Why would I spend thousands and thousands of dollars to go to school and learn if it wasn’t? Higher education is a privilege, but one that has become so hard to attain that it leaves college students wallowing in debt for 20-30 years. State schools are supposed to be a more affordable option than private schools, but with the lessening amount of funding we have been allotted over the past few years, it doesn’t seem like it.

Funding to state schools has dropped significantly. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, “Per-student funding in Alabama, Arizona, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina is down by more than 35 percent since the start of the recession [2008].”

Because the job market is changing, most jobs that earn you enough to live on require a degree. So to get enough money to live, you need to go to college for a degree that leaves you with thousands of dollars of debt? How does this make sense?

The state system of higher education needs more government funding and this is what these “negotiations” are about. Mr. Brogan, please listen to what the professors and professionals in the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties are proposing. The media is making these professors out to be greedy, and that’s why negotiations aren’t creating a contract.

APSCUF faculty members have already voted to initiate a strike at all 14 state universities. A strike would throw a wrench into all of my school plans. I’m planning to graduate in May, so please don’t let this screw it up.

How much do you make? How much of that money do you think that you deserve? Who is paying you that money? The state? Yeah, they are. I think some of the funds should go toward student education.

Do you not understand that educating our future creates better futures to come? If you raise a generation of ill-educated people, then we are going to be the people taking care of you when you’re old. We are the future. We are going to be the presidents, the military leaders, professors and doctors. If you don’t invest money into us now, there will be nothing of our “great” nation in the future.

Let’s get our act together and come to a conclusion on these contracts. Two years of professors working without a contract on compensation and benefits is ridiculous. Let’s make a reasonable decision for our future.

Want to know more about the Looming ASPCUF Strike? Check out the updates here.