Recent events in Connecticut highlight the urgency of our current fight over higher education and the need to tie these issues into one offensive strategy. When a Democratic governor, in one of the wealthiest states with a budget surplus, pushes for $500-600 million in cuts to higher education over two years – we’re seeing the full manifestation of forty years of neoliberal budget ideology. In this ideology, times of surplus or deficit, good economic or bad economic cycles, all call for tax cuts and cuts to funding for public services. Governor Ned Lamont (D) said these higher ed cuts are necessary to “right size” the campuses and to allow for tax cuts that will announce Connecticut is “open for business.” Yet Lamont supports “free community college” for “workforce development” and partnerships with businesses to align public higher education with their job needs. He has co-opted “free college” while the humanities, social sciences, and academic supports in the overall system will suffer. Students will have debt-free community college, but with fewer majors and transfer options and less counseling and assistance.
This situation in Connecticut is in line with cuts and reallocations now proposed in West Virginia and Florida, to name two prominent examples. In all these fights, campus workers (faculty, staff, students, service providers) have reduced leverage after decades of adjunctification, attrition, contingent contracts, and outsourcing. Whether the immediate fight concerns student debt, precarious exploitative employment, academic freedom, attacks on tenure, institutional finance, real estate development, or board appointments, we are at a disadvantage unless we can organize beyond our campuses and go on the offensive to gain some control over allocating the money at campus, state, and federal levels.
Higher education for all – all students, faculty, staff, and communities – provides a way forward with its demand for increased public funding tied to specific allocations and restricted from others. Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Pramila Jayapal recently reintroduced their College for All bill, which does some of what we want. Senator Ed Markey immediately backed it. We know Congress is incapable of passing any piece of major legislation, but we have to take charge in this battle of ideas to increase our chances of passing our funding packages in the future. These Democratic leaders are working to forge a new conversation about higher ed and the billions of dollars it receives. At the state level, right-wing and neoliberal politicians are passing their agenda with terms like “return on investment,” “responsible use of taxpayer dollars,” and “job creation.” We can counter that with ideas like those in Sanders and Jayapal’s bill, MTA-NEA’s fight for Higher Ed for All: Students, Workers, and Communities, and NYSUT’s demand for Quality Accessible Higher Education for All. We want funding for the educational mission, to build an equitable and quality higher education system.
A coalition of Connecticut unions, after hundreds of written and dozens of spoken testimonials along with regular meetings at the state capitol, forced the Connecticut governor and General Assembly down to $200 million of cuts over two years. They have a year to keep fighting the deepest cuts that will come in 2024-2025. CSU-AAUP, UConn-AAUP, SEIU, and others will continue the offensive.
Lamont wants to dumb down the workforce by cutting public higher education funding, practically starving liberal arts and general education. He and other rich people in Connecticut, who control the legislature, don’t want thinkers. They want cogs in the machine. It is disgusting what he is doing and the majority of the public is not aware of this. But we are fighting, through the Recovery for All coalition, which unites almost 70 union organizations, faith-based organizations, and community groups. Please join us in fighting for full funding of public goods and services!