About Those “Massive” Budget Cuts and Tuition Hikes

OK, so now I’m watching Tuesday’s “Nevada Newsmaker” program. One of the guests is Dr. Maria Sheehan, president of Truckee Meadows Community College. Not surprisingly, Dr. Sheehan is complaining about the – hyperbole alert! – “massive cuts” to the university system.

The good doctor is saying the cuts mean TMCC will have to eliminate “personal enrichment” courses. What are they, you ask? “Courses that are not core credit courses,” Dr. Sheehan explains. Such as “Spanish for Traveling.”

Oh, the horror!

On the matter or raising tuition, Dr. Sheehan laments that “students have born a huge amount of the burden.”

Well, um, duh. It’s the adult students who are voluntarily going to college and getting the benefit; why shouldn’t they be the ones who have to pay for it? But wait, it gets better.

Dr. Sheehan says that tuition hikes will be in the 10-15 percent range. Let’s say, for example, Dr. Sheehan says, the increase at TMCC is 13 percent. That would, she explains, jack the cost of a three-credit course skyward from $204 all the way up to…um, $234.

Oh, the horror!

Yes, a whopping $30 increase. Twenty-five cents a day for a four-month semester. Yes, I can see how such a “massive” increase in tuition will prevent thousands and thousands of kids from learning how to say “Muchas gracias, senorita” the next time they’re traveling to Tijuana. Beam me up, Scotty!