Published: February 08, 2007 08:24 pm         

College students rally for funding

FRANKFORT — Kathy Blankenship works on campus. Her dad gives her $1,000 each semester to help her with tuition, housing and food costs at Morehead State University. But the junior business management major expects to owe as much as $10,000 in student loans by the time she graduates. And that’s not nearly as much as some of her friends will owe.

“It will be hard when I get out,” Blankenship, 20, of Winchester said. “But I figure it will benefit me in the long run. I’ve got it better than some. I’ve had some friends that had to drop out because they couldn’t afford it.”

Blankenship was one of about 150 students who gathered in the state Capitol Rotunda Wednesday seeking legislative support for higher education. In the past 10 years, tuition at Kentucky’s public universities has increased 145 percent. Blankenship said her tuition went up $800 this year over what she paid last year.

Gov. Ernie Fletcher, who Tuesday night asked lawmakers to allow him to spend $25 million of a projected $401 million surplus to support needs-based tuition assistance, told the crowd of students he wants the General Assembly to pass his proposal this session “and plan to do even more in the next session” when lawmakers will pass the next biennial budget.

Fletcher made his traditional campaign pitch about increased funding for education during his administration, but tuition rates have increased in each year he’s been in office.

Fellow Republican and Secretary of State Trey Grayson also addressed the crowd of students, telling them they must remain engaged with lawmakers all year long – and not just one day each year while lawmakers are in session – if they want to have an impact on higher education costs and accessibility.

“Contact your legislators and urge them to support higher education,” Grayson said, and he said they must do that all 365 days of the year. “This doesn’t stop today – it begins today.”

State Treasurer and Democratic candidate for governor Jonathan Miller, who has targeted young voters as part of his campaign strategy, fired up the crowd and told them to use such internet services as Facebook and MySpace to build a network of support for higher education.

Whatever the effect of Wednesday’s rally in the capitol, it won’t be soon enough, said James Taylor, a Morehead graduate student from Campbellsville.

“My tuition went up 9 percent last year,” Taylor said. “And it’s supposed to go up another 8 percent next year.”



Ronnie Ellis writes for The Morehead News and is based in Frankfort. He may be contacted by email at rellis@cnhi.com.