The sub-headline in a front-page story in Monday’s Las Vegas Review-Journal reads: “Nevada State College could be killed outright or folded into another school.” It’s the latest in an ongoing media effort to highlight all the possible negative effects of budget cuts if approved.
Here’s the thing: Budget cuts are not a Kobayashi Maru.
Fact is, it’s more than possible to implement the necessary budget cuts and NOT close down the Nevada State College or fold it into another school. On the other hand, for many of us, NSC never should have been opened in the first place, so maybe it SHOULD be closed down or folded into another school.
But if folks are bound and determined to keep NSC open, then raising tuition on the folks who use the service is certainly a viable alternative. Consider: The RJ story notes that it will cost $1,800 per semester to attend NSC next year. That’s $3,600 for both semesters of a school year.
Folks, that’s less than what many parents pay to send their kids to a typical private elementary school! And yet I’m supposed to believe that tuition hikes for these college-age adult students would be the end of the world as we know it? Gimme a break.
You could DOUBLE their tuition and it would still be less than what Nevada spends per pupil on grade school students, so quit the whining, suck it up and get back in the classroom.
