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My father's family was already poor
before the Great Depression started. The downward economic spiral
after Black Tuesday in 1929 didn't make things any better.
When he was a boy, he was sent with
a bucket to pick up coal that had fallen from trains of the nearby
Southern Railway. The coal he collected helped heat his family's
simple home. He remembered suppers with nothing but beans and Christmases
with nothing but an orange in his stocking.
His parents didn't graduate from high
school. In fact, they never entered high school, each having gone
to work in the Chattanooga shoe mills during their early teens to
support their fatherless families. They could never have sent him
to college.
Yet my father rose to become a mechanical
engineer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and an internationally
recognized pump designer before he retired in 1985 and died last
year. His work contributed to the defense and the scientific advancement
of our nation. He succeeded because in his era, the state and federal
governments were committed to making higher education more widespread
and more affordable.
Thanks to public schools in Chattanooga
and Hamilton County, he became the first person in his family's
history to graduate from high school. Thanks to the G.I. Bill and
his service in World War II, he became the first to graduate from
college.
The taxpayers' investment in Loyd Wilson's
education was returned a thousand-fold during the rest of his lifetime.
His earnings were higher, and he paid tens of thousands more dollars
in taxes than his siblings paid because they didn't get a chance
at college, not being the right age for military service in the
1940s.
In their productive years, my parents
quietly donated significant sums to charity and community organizations.
That wouldn't have been possible if he'd been employed in a position
that was less lucrative. They invested in a nice home and bought
better cars than he could have afforded with only a high school
education, thus helping to fuel the economy.
And he wasn't unique in this regard.
He wasn't even unusual. Millions of Tennesseans have been more productive
and contributed more to their communities and their nation because
of leaders who understood that when barriers to higher education
are lowered, everyone benefits.
Today, we seem to be headed in the
opposite direction. In recent weeks, the state Board of Regents
and the University of Tennessee's Board of Trustees have approved
huge increases in college tuition for next year. Faculty and staff
are being laid off. Enrollment is being restricted. Scholarship
support through the Tennessee Student Assistance Corporation was
cut. These cuts and others are detailed in an insightful study called
''Shredding the Safety Net,'' produced by Tennesseans for Fair Taxation
and by the Tennessee Alliance for Progress.
Our state and our nation enjoyed enormous
success and growth because of the investment in higher education
in previous decades, but Tennessee is now reversing course.
Gov. Phil Bredesen did the best he
could do with the disastrous financial situation he inherited upon
taking office. He didn't make the mess; he's cleaning it up. But
as he restores our fiscal house to order, we see how empty the cupboard
shelves are.
The legislature can't repeal the law
of supply and demand. As we push the cost of higher education to
record heights, we are blocking many future Loyd Wilsons from ever
entering college. Their potential will be lost because they can't
afford tuition that has doubled in the past 10 years.
While Bredesen should be congratulated
for re-establishing the baselines of the state budget and for restoring
fiscal order, we need to make clear to him and to the legislature
that we understand the value of higher education. It's an investment
in our future. We need leadership so that we can educate and empower
today's students to be more productive citizens and taxpayers in
the decades and centuries ahead.
Jeff Wilson is a Nashville businessman,
life-long Tennessean and member of the Tennessee Alliance for Progress.
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