Charlie Hicks

In documents obtained through a public records request made by the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington a strange exchange is revealed. On March 13th, 2007 a former Masters of Public Administration adjunct faculty named Steve D. Johnson copied and forwarded on to the Washington State Patrol (WSP) a post on TESC Crier advertising a March 15th anti-war protest at the Port of Tacoma rallying against use of ports for military shipments.

This year tuition has gone up 14%, half of the proposed 30% increase, which was instated by Gov. Gregoire in an attempt to balance Washington’s mismanaged budget. With this “all-cuts budget,” the Governor is exchanging the education of students who could previously afford tuition for a balanced budget. This exchange is a blow to the diversity of our schools as well as a blow to the future of equality in this country.

In this period of declining budgets, we are all witnessing a renewed attack on our public services. From declining Social Security and welfare benefits, to a 28% increase in tuition costs, conservative interests are using financial crisis for their familiar goals of defunding public services.