This presidential election marks the first time that many Temple students will be given the privilege to vote, and the results of the election will have major ramifications for all
of us in the Temple community – students, faculty, staff, and administration. As recent articles in the Chronicle of Higher Education have shown, Kerry offers a better vision for
the funding of higher education in America’s colleges and universities, from his proposal for a $4000/year college tax credit to his idea of creating a National Education Trust
Fund. In the past four years, federal funding for higher education has been simply inadequate for public schools and colleges; rather than responding to this crisis, one that affects student tuition, availability of scholarships and grants, and vital programs, the Bush administration has not fulfilled its obligations to colleges and universities.
According to the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, this has resulted in national tuition costs that have skyrocketed to a 35% increase during the past four
years, including another increase in Temple’s tuition this year. Education, however, has another dimension beyond these policy choices: educated individuals, once graduated, have
the opportunity to exercise their public role as citizens in a democracy. This model, based on the classical Greek notion of the educated public citizen, is threatened through the
Patriot Act, a salient example of the disenfranchisement of individual rights. How can we ask our students to become public citizens if their government can hold them
indefinitely without representation and without the right of habeas corpus? The single best choice for those of us concerned about the plight of higher education and for the
Temple community overall is the Democratic ticket of John Kerry and John Edwards.
Michael S. Martin
Ph.D. Student
English
423 B Haddon Ave.
Haddonfield, NJ 08033
(856)264-1522
email: msmartin@temple.edu
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