I try to cut college students some slack when they fail to connect the dots between policy and politics. They’re young. But my patience is wearing thin, considering the disastrous fiscal situation we face in this country. After all, college students were a key piece of the 2008 voting block that elected the current Congress and White House, which ramped up spending and borrowing to the point that we now face a $14 trillion debt.
From the Daily Tar Heel comes this story about a petition drive among students who want the proceeds of a $200 tuition increase to be re-routed back to UNC rather than to the state.
Student government members were already in the Pit on Monday afternoon gathering signatures.
“We want to make sure that our tuition money goes to things that we care about,” said Holly Boardman, co-chairwoman of the academic affairs committee, as she collected signatures.
It’s fascinating that students believe they have a right to “our tuition money” when they are so heavily subsidized by every North Carolina taxpayer. It makes me wonder if these 20-year-olds have yet figured out what awaits them when they enter the workforce and must begin to pay for all of the federal, state, and local entitlements they typically support while in college. A rude awakening is coming for this student and millions of others.
Sophomore Lindsey Hensler said Monday she hadn’t heard about the petition but supported the idea.
“I agree with what student government is doing because I don’t see why the government should be targeting students to make up for their deficit,” she said.
Ms. Hensler, it is YOUR deficit.
