A sampling of recent editorials from Colorado newspapers:
NATIONAL:
The Durango Herald, Oct. 29, on President Obama’s proposal regarding student loans:
How many people actually lie awake at night worrying about the ratio of federal debt to GDP? How many really lose sleep over tort reform, farm subsidies, campaign finance or even immigration?
The answer is probably not many—at least not compared with how many fret over personal financial situations. And student loans are some of the biggest and fastest growing contributors to those worries.
How refreshing, then, that the president of the United States would notice that. Few of the others vying for his job have connected to anything so mundane.
In his 2010 State of the Union speech, President Obama proposed an income-based repayment plan for student loans, which Congress then enacted. It limits payments to 15 percent of borrowers’ discretionary income. That is set to go to 10 percent in 2014.
Obama is now proposing to make those benefits effective in 2012 and to make it easier for borrowers to participate in the program. He also wants to offer a discount to borrowers seeking to consolidate existing student loans, about 6 million of whom have current direct loans and older, higher cost, Federal Family Education Loans.
This is seemingly esoteric stuff, but it is a reality millions of families face. It is an unhappy paradox that as the world shifts toward an economy based increasingly on information, knowledge and intellectual capital, the education essential to financial success is becoming increasingly more expensive. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, 123 U.S. schools now charge more than $50,000 per year in tuition and fees. A survey released in October by the College Board says fees, room and board at four-year public colleges now averages more than $17,000 per year. At private schools, the comparable cost is more than $38,000.
At those prices, the days of working one’s way through school are over. If 18-year-olds could make $40,000 per year, they would not be so eager to go to college.
What is more, there is no reason to think the situation will improve. A study by the University of Virginia says that from 1985 to 2005, the percentage of revenue received by colleges and universities from tuition rose from 22 percent to 36 percent. As states face increasing pressure to cut spending, reducing the funding for higher education is all but unavoidable. That inevitably shifts costs onto students and their families.
That usually means borrowing money. The question then becomes: Do parents mortgage their homes, endanger their own financial well-being or put their retirement at risk? Or do they send their kids out into the world with an unmanageable debt load?
It is a choice with no good answer. In a nation that has largely outsourced its manufacturing sector, forgoing higher education is not an attractive option, at least not for anyone with middle-class aspirations. The military and scholarships can help with college costs, but neither are options available to all.
The more typical result is debt, which can have ramifications far beyond those affecting an individual or even a family. How, for example, can a college grad with $20,000, $50,000 or even $100,000 in debt take a job as a teacher or a cop? Not everyone can be a doctor or an engineer, so with debt levels like that, we are pushing the best and the brightest away from the most important jobs and toward areas that may be more immediately lucrative but that are ultimately less productive.
Will Obama’s ideas fix the situation? No, but they could help. And millions of American families can take heart that someone is at least voicing their concerns.
Editorial:
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Loveland Daily Reporter-Herald, Oct. 28, on the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq:
The withdrawal of about 40,000 troops from Iraq calls for celebration despite concerns about the future of the country.
President Barack Obama announced in October that troops will leave Iraq before the end of the year.
Still, reasons for a reasonable U.S. military presence in the country exist. The region and the nation have stability issues with warring religious factions, terrorist recruitment, re-forming government and overstepping neighbor nations. Certainly military training from the U.S. could continue to help the Iraqis.
But the withdrawal stems from a 2008 agreement. Renegotiation attempts failed when Iraqi leaders would not extend immunity from prosecution to troops left to train Iraqi security forces.
No immunity, no deal.
And our troops will return home.
Combat formally ended in August 2010. Since the war started in 2003, our nation lost more than 4,400 Americans, spent more than $800 billion, and sent servicemen and servicewomen on tour after tour, with tens of thousands sustaining mental and physical injury.
Was the “mission accomplished”? No.
Is this “war” over? Likely not.
The debate certainly isn’t over, as 12 members of the Senate Armed Services Committee are asking for a hearing about the decision.
With an unclear mission then and today, we can pin hopes on what is clear: Many of our nation’s military men and women thankfully will be safe at home for the holidays and beyond.
We can all appreciate that.
And we can hope our nation’s influence and regional changes set Iraq on a path to a strong democracy.
Editorial:
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STATE:
The Denver Post, Oct. 30, on need for better oversight in food industry in wake of listeria outbreak:
Listeria-tainted cantaloupe from Colorado have killed at least 28 people, making it the country’s second-deadliest foodborne illness outbreak since the Centers for Disease Control began keeping records nearly 40 years ago.
Given unanswered questions and the need to avoid future outbreaks, officials in Washington and Colorado are right to scrutinize the episode.
Last week, Colorado Agriculture Secretary John Salazar told The Denver Post’s Michael Booth that the state intended to assert stronger oversight over its cantaloupe industry.
Potential steps include a label identifying those melons whose growers meet certain safety criteria, including outside audits and pathogen testing prior to shopping.
As is increasingly the case, however, the state lacks the money to implement a certification program and instead would likely pass the cost on to growers.
That’s an unfortunate but necessary step. The state’s cantaloupe crop is reportedly an $8 million annual business and it has no doubt taken a blow in the wake of listeria-tainted melons that were traced to Jensen Farms near Holly.
While there is no evidence that practices at Jensen Farms are widespread, the steps Salazar is recommending to ensure safety and to rehabilitate the industry’s image strike us as good ones.
Meanwhile, the House Energy and Commerce committee sent a letter earlier this month to the farm’s owners, asking them to come to Washington to brief the committee on the listeria outbreak.
Jensen Farms officials have been silent in the wake of reports that detailed the conditions that allowed for the spread of listeria at its packing facility, and it would be helpful to get a better handle on their operations.
An FDA report faulted the ways in which the facility sorted and cooled cantaloupe.
Further troubling, in our view, is a third-party audit shortly before the tainted melons were shipped. That audit noted the questionable methods used for cooling and sorting, but still delivered a 96 out of 100 score.
That begs the question of whether this review was an aberration or if the audit process needs overhauling.
The lab that oversaw the Jensen Farms audit has said future examinations will include swab tests for pathogens such as listeria.
In investigating the issue, Congress should consider making those tests mandatory.
But Congress also must take a closer look at the whether food safety rules are going far enough.
FDA officials acknowledge that under new rules passed in January, facilities like Jensen Farms are inspected only every five to seven years.
That makes a review of the auditing process—often paid for by farmers or grocers—and other safety measures intended to protect consumers all the more important.
Editorial:
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The Daily Sentinel, Oct. 30, on proposal by Colorado Mesa University to sustain financing:
Colleges and universities are supposed to be laboratories for creative thinking and innovative ideas. And the folks at Colorado Mesa University have come up with a doozy of an innovative plan for sustained financing for higher education.
We applaud the CMU Board of Trustees, President Tim Foster and his staff for examining a new approach to funding higher ed at a time when state money for colleges and universities is continuing to decline and too many others at public colleges and universities in Colorado are doing little but wringing their hands about the budget outlook.
CMU officials have proposed creating educational authorities—for example, the Colorado Mesa University Authority—which would be formed under the same statute that allowed formation of the Colorado University Hospital Authority. The authorities would be quasi-public-private entities, political subdivisions of the state that operate independently.
The heart of the CMU proposal is to use certificates of participation, sold at today’s low interest rates, to establish operating endowments for colleges and universities statewide. Payments for the certificates would come from the state general fund, but the payments are expected to be less than the state now spends in direct funding for higher education.
For instance, CMU currently receives $18.5 million in state general funds, but that is expected to continue declining and could be less than $10 million in another five years.
According to a white paper prepared by Foster and his staff, if the state created a $260 million endowment for the CMU Authority with the sale of certificates of participation, it would generate an estimated $13 million a year for the university in perpetuity.
Meanwhile, the state’s annual debt service on the certificates could be as low as $13.2 million a year, a 29 percent savings from what the state currently spends on CMU.
Although the cut in yearly state funding from $18.5 million to $13 million “would take some adjustment at Colorado Mesa University,” the white paper says, “controlling its own destiny would enhance the institution’s ability to plan long term and remove annual uncertainty” about state funding.
A big hitch in this plan is that it must be approved by the state Legislature, and some lawmakers are sure to chafe at the notion of allowing CMU—or any other college or university—more autonomy, even if it saves the state money. As part of its proposal, CMU is saying college and university authorities should be exempt from oversight by the Colorado Commission on Higher Education and exempt from the state personnel system.
CMU officials have talked with a number of state lawmakers here and on the Front Range about carrying legislation to enact the college and university authority plan. Until we see how such legislation is written, we aren’t prepared to support it.
However, we are prepared to say the CMU Trustees and administrators deserve credit for looking beyond the funding declines and beyond traditional tax and tuition hikes toward a more innovative plan to stabilize long-term funding.
Editorial:
