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Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Feb. 20, 1997
issue of Workers World newspaper
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Cuts in education

Robbing 200,000 CUNY students

By G. Dunkel in New York

Gov. George E. Pataki, a Republican following a time-worn tradition that stretches back to the early years of Democrat Mario Cuomo, recently proposed a budget that would severely cut funds for public higher education in New York.

The City University of New York, which educates over 200,000 students, will be particularly hard hit since most of its students come from low-income or poor families.

The Cuomo cuts just shrank the "fat" in CUNY's budget- books, journals, language labs, the arts, programs designed to overcome the poor education many students receive, cleaning, repairs, counselors, recreational facilities- anything that would make a CUNY education enriched or enjoyable.

As full-time teachers retire, they are replaced with part-time, lower-paid professors who get far less and in some cases give their students less, since their connection to the university is temporary.

Now the Pataki cuts, added to the current wave of attacks on poor and working people, especially welfare cuts, will force thousands of CUNY students out of school.

According to the Professional Staff Congress, which represents the faculty, librarians and technical staff, over 10 percent of CUNY students are so poor they qualify for public assistance. But public assistance is being eliminated.

The university estimates that its enrollment would drop by 20,000 if Pataki's cuts go through.

Over 40 percent of the students affected, according to CUNY's web page, have an adjusted gross income of $4,000 or less; 79 percent come from families whose adjusted gross income is less than $20,000.

While more than 20,000 poor students could be forced out due to the rising cost of higher education, more and more middle-income students are going to CUNY.

The PSC just lost an important court case in which the judges declared the university doesn't have to follow its own rules requiring declaring a financial crisis before laying off PSC members. The union has also been without a contract for about a year now. The PSC says it can't accept management's proposals and survive.

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