Heading toward taxes?
(In response to Brendan O’Kelly’s Wednesday letter, “Funding fight.”)
In his letter to the editor, Mr. O’Kelly places the blame for rising tuition costs on the Arizona State Legislature.
He also encourages involvement in the group SunDevil Advocates, which seeks to gain more public funding for Arizona’s universities.
If you read this group’s Web site, what they are advocating would inevitably lead to higher taxes and fees on government services. These taxes and fees would not just affect “rich” Arizonians, they would affect ASU students and faculty as well, and raise of the cost of living in Arizona.
Higher sales and income taxes, higher fees to register a vehicle and get a driver’s license, or higher rates on public transportation will take more money away from every ASU student and employee, regardless of economic status.
Either way, through higher tuition or higher taxes, it will become more expensive to attend ASU.
In my opinion, what ASU should be worried about is not how much money they receive from the state (which is broke), but the increase in competition they will face from cheaper community colleges and online universities that will inevitably come from higher tuition and fees.
If ASU wants to continue to attract new students (and not just 18 year old freshmen, but older students as well), they need to control and cut costs to remain competitive with these new forms of higher education.
Daniel Caldwell Undergraduate
