Researcher Argues for Increased State Aid to Public Colleges

ALBANY, NY (01/25/2009)(readMedia)-- David Dyseegaard Kallick, senior fellow at the Fiscal Policy Institute, defends his organization's call for increased state aid to public colleges and universities in an interview published today on the Empire Page.

"We don't have to choose between our children and the environment, or between aid to local government and aid to welfare recipients," Kallick states. "We do have to choose between cutting services to those in need and asking the wealthy to pay their far share. That's not a tough choice."

Kallick argues that state aid has failed to keep up with enrollment growth.

"…for more than a decade, SUNY and CUNY have been operating with tightly squeezed budgets. That makes it hard to see how they could sustain proposed further reductions in state aid per student without sacrificing the quality of students' educational experience," he says.

The Improving New York section of the Empire Page explores solutions to New York's government-related problems. Future interviews will examine property taxes, government consolidation and similar issues. Suggestions for future interviews may be sent to editor@empirepage.com.

The Empire Page is published by PoliticalNewsToday.com, LLC, which seeks to provide information and opinion on the key issues of the day through websites that aggregate news and opinion and provide useful content for people active in government and politics. The partnership consists of Peter G. Pollak, who is the majority shareholder and actively manages the company, Schwartz-Heslin Group and Wynantskill Capital.