
AP Photo/Matt York
Arizona State Rep. Michelle Ugenti, R- Scottsdale, speaks with Arizona Rep, Russ Jones, R-Yuma, during a legislative session Wednesday, April 6, 2011 at the Capitol in Phoenix. The Arizona Legislature, now pushing to ends its 2011 regular session, is trying to fix an error in a budget bill which would allow them to send it back to Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer and set the stage for her to act on the 13-bill package.
A bill is advancing through the Arizona legislature that would require all students to pay a minimum of $2,000 tuition to attend public university in the state. Approximately one-quarter of students pay nothing in tuition after qualifying for need-based state and federal aid.
Some lawmakers think this figure is simply too high. The sponsor of the bill, State Rep. John Kavanagh (R), thinks free tuition is a leading cause of high college dropout rates in the state. He argues that students who have invested their own money have a greater incentive not to dropout.
"Not everyone, but some people take things they get for free less seriously,” Kavanagh said.
House Bill 2675, was introduced after one study found “nearly half “of all students qualified to pay no tuition from 2009-10. Christine Thompson of the Arizona Board of Regents calls that year an “anomaly.” “Since then, tuition has gone up. The most current figure is closer to 25 percent,” she says.
At the committee hearing nearly 100 students showed up to oppose the bill, saying the $2,000 minimum would make it harder for them to complete their degree. Republican Representative Michelle Ugenti replied to them saying, “Welcome to life.”
The bill passed through committee with a 7-6 vote.



Republican want Education for the rich only to hell with the poor. The most drop out student are on wealthy side.
It Is AMAZING That This STARTED IN 2011 From The gop-re-baggers Just AFTER THEY Took Control Of The Congress !!!! Geeez - Wow- Of Coarse THEY Couldnt Start This BS During gwb's Times In Office = Butt ONLY When Prez. OBAMA Took Office ??? Hmmmm - Wonder WHY ??????
I cannot COUNT how many people I warned of this tea party farce and LIE for the two YEARS leading up to the 2010 midterms as I worked three campaigns recovering from back surgery to the best of my ability in WI. 8th congressional district to re-elect Steve Kagen for a 3rd term and useless Reid Ribble got in. Russ Feingold's re-election and he lost to that empty suit corporate shill Ron Johnson and fought for the election of Tom Barrett for Governor and we got the disaster that is Scott Walker. And this 112th CONGRESS!!!
Need I say MORE??? Some "liberty and freedom"...all it has been is social issues like more abortion bills then I have seen in MY years of voting, wedge issues and religious extremism, next to NOTHING about jobs and the economy because they ran on supposedly "jobs" but I saw through that and now all you hear "it's not government's jobs to create jobs, that's the PRIVATE sector's job" but then turn right around and crab at Obama for a sluggish economy when all THEY'VE done is BLOCK every piece of legislation he or the dems try to PASS on jobs, except this useless, polluting PIPELINE of course that is nothing more the a gift to BIg Oil, the oil LOBBY and fat cat politicians who have a vested $$$ interest in it....while they destroy the union workers jobs by the tens of THOUSANDS w/o impunity. The backbone who BUILT the American middle class.
Go SCREW yourselves party of GREED!!!!!
Incidently, in case ANYONE cares, since Walker's "reforms", WI is dead last in jobs created and number ONE in jobs lost in the country, no matter what he is flying around the USA telling everyone on his "Americans for Prosperity"-(Koch Brothers), sponsored tour of crappola . He is full of S--T with a capital S!!!! A disgusted WI citizen who "knows better" as do all of us who live here.
Teresa = I Love You !!!!!! Keep UP The Good Fight !!!!!
MD...
This tuition SNAFU is in Arizona; it's not Federal. GWB has nothing to do with it...
David = What - Did I Miss Something Here ???? OH - Well They Didnt Start This Crap Until 2011 !!!! What ??? Enlighten Me Please !!!???
MD...
The very first word in the headline is "ARIZONA"...
This bill is headed for Jan Brewer, not Obama...
Oh good! Another dumb, insane, idiot to add to the Tpub. list. What, can anyone tell us, is wrong with these people? And "wrong" is being kind! But true to party form, "keep 'em dumb and voting for us".
Air-a-zona.......just a dust storm state between here and California.
TM = Where Is Here ??? Or Are You Talking About There ????
You know I live right next door.....to the bigot state.....of Arizona. We have the token female ,Hispanic Governor that the reps think might make a vote getting VP.
What = No ; I Do NOT Know This ???? Stop The Bigots !!!!
MD... TM lives in New Mexico, I believe...
David = I'M Just Messin' With Her = She Loves It !!!! NM = Thats A Far Cry From Detroit !!!
Arizona has slammed the door in the face of many college students. College tuition is out rageous in every college. My Daughters Master Degree at Ohio State is the equivalent of a Mortgage payment. How many wish today they had not went?In a time when we need more of everything with degrees to hit the ground running in America you have places like Arizona making it impossible to get ahead. College tuition, and the interests charged for them is Outrageous !!!!!!!
If you don't go to school there's a big chance you won't have the tools or the time to analyze and clearly see the profound fraud behind the trickle down economics. As long as people remain ignorant they'll be cheap labor, easy to manipulate, easy to control..... AKA the Tea Party.
Welcome to GOP policies. And still they keep voting them in... I'm starting to agree with Bill Maher on this, maybe there's a stupidity vote going around that makes people vote against their own interests, or maybe it's just plain ole brain washing.
I'd say it's been the long process called the "dumbing down of America" that has finally taken hold with a Big dose of BIGOTRY after the election of Barack Obama a Democrat who ALSO tried for the ultimate no-no-healthcare for ALL Americans and an ATTEMPT at policies that hinted at the progressive in a country that has been so used to being center RIGHT for far too long but has been "convinced" we and all our media with the exception of the Faux Noise propaganda machine of the gop is ALL LIBERAL and out to get everyone by the socialist "big government takeover".
Conspiracy theories and fear mongering really work great on the stupid in large numbers in a recession. Please check your history while it is STILL intact and read up on that "fascism" thing circa 1923-1933 right after a certain failed Beer Hall "putsch put a kooky guy with the tooth brush mustache in prison where he wrote a book called: "My Struggle". Mein Kampf
The Germans laughed at HIM until it was too late because THEY were "too stupid to get it" either. Case closed gang.
Very good example Teresa
What is going on with the vine? I checked it earlier and it was totally different. Now it is back to normal.
Now to the subject. This is going to hurt so many young people who have a lot of potential but no money. There was a young lady that went to college with my daughter and she got to go free because her dad passed away and her mom made barely enough to keep herself and her kids going. This young lady graduated with honors and is now has a good job and is very productive to society. If she had faced this kind of situation where she would have had to pay so much, she would never had been able to go to school. This is the most absurd, cruel action I have seen taken to hold back our young people from the chance of prospering in life. This proves that the republicans only want the well to do to do well.
It is always a mystery....never seems to get solved?
Thankful, I never heard anything from them about other day. That was the most bazaar thing to happen our post just were gone. I wonder if face book experienced it to ?
Makes me mad. Flipping GOP Republicans born with a silver spoon in thier mouth dumping right in the face of the low to middle income students that struggle to even feed themselves while in school. I hope to hell people get their a55es to the polls this fall and sort out the mess that we got put into in 2010.
Jesus..... this is just getting more pathetic every day.
Regards
I wonder if the 'wicked witch of the west' realized what that can do for people thinking of moving to Arizona with their kids knowing they'll have to pay at least 2,000 to get them into college. Can't see Arizona growing very much in the future and that will also affect businesses. What are these idiots thinking?
Do you know why I've come to DESPISE Republicans in the last few years?
Because of policies like this. They would keep the poor needy forever, living in hovels and starving if they had their way. I've never seen such a mean, nasty, cruel, and evil group of people in my lifetime, and yes, that includes people from the same party 30 years ago, who wouldn't recognize these extremists.
They take money out of public secondary schools to dumb down the population and give themselves an endless supply of voters. Stupid people vote Republican. Educated ones tend to vote the other way.
They don't want you to go to college unless you're already rich, selfish and stupid.
Republicans keep say Democrats engage in class warfare while its the republicans that actually push legislation further separating the rich from the poor. Eventually middle class and poor republicans will stop swallowing the rhetoric and republicans will have a difficult time winning an election with 1% of the vote.
Who receives the benefits of a degree, the student or the tax payer that funds it? Is it really unreasonable for the person benefiting from the education to pay at least a small amount of the cost? It is a fact that those with higher education earn significantly more than those without it. Those with degrees want the benefit of the degree, they just don't want to pay for it. Its like a pubic sector union member that wants health care coverage to be paid by the tax payer.
well yes the degree will get you more money in a career and more money will also mean more taxes. in the long run, the tax payer gets paid back and then some. a small investment for a large gain. but i say if you drop out you have to repay every cent.
Don't even START with that HATE rhetoric bashing on UNION people whom because of their hideous decline, so have the WAGES of the average AMERICAN worker you selfish hypocrite who celebrates the POLICIES of these lawmakers who get the BEST taxpayer funded healthcare, pensions and salaries for LIFE and they don't have to "negotiate" for them. Just vote on it and get it while legislating what the REST of us get on our CRAP employer insurance we pay a fortune for.
How DARE YOU?
How is the network working this morning, I couldn't get on for a while? You tell em Teresa!
All the time. An activist's work is never done. Solidarity!!!
Amen teresa!
Thankful, I looked at the vine earlier this morning and it was weird. The whole setup was different. I came back later and it was back to normal. I don't know if they are looking to try something new on the vine or not. I like this setup much better than what I saw this morning.
Are you serious or simply a mean spirited troll?
Joel, Do you really think so? The majority of tax payers funding higher education through their Federal and State Income Tax do now have college degrees. They pay taxes that in part support others receiving a college degree. Regardless of how much taxes a college graduate may or may not pay in future years, that money never goes back to the tax payers that funded the education. Now if you said a college graduate should provide a fair share of his or her income directly to those without a college degree, I would agree with you. But as it is a college graduate with a BA degree will earn a little over $1,000 a week while the average worker with a HS deploma earns a little over $600.00 a week. The average worker is paying for the college he does not directly benefit from while the college graduate that does directly benefit from the education doesn't pay for it. Would you support a tax proposal that imposed an additional 10% income tax on college graduates specifically to provide an additional tax refund to non-college workers?
This is lady is so out of touch, she probably thinks poor people actually have 2000 dollars just sitting around that they choose not to use. Afterall, to her 2000 dollars is probably chump change. So many good, honest people will be hurt by this legislation. Welcome to the new America.
My husband WORKS F-T and as an activist, most of my work is volunteer so financial compensation is minimal so WE don't $2000 bucks "just laying around" either. What is in savings is there for EMERGENCIES at this point after our 401ks when I was working F-T got creamed by the 2008 Wall St blunder like so many others that saw them go "bye bye" and had us, in our mid 40's STARTING OVER from nothing but no big deal, eh?
"Don't blame Wall St, don't blame the banks if you aren't rich. Blame YOURSELF" Hermann Cain-2011
But you don't understand Teresa, everything is your fault, and if it's not your fault it's Obama's fault. That's how the GOP mind works.
You mention bigotry, but they say there's none of that. How in hell can you explain otherwise a union worker voting for the GOP knowing there's a very big chance they'll end up fired because of the GOP's anti-labor sentiment? It's anything but the black guy in office. I know it sounds harsh but that's how it's been for generations, the dormant monster in this country, racism and hatred, and Obama's pretense in the White House (pun intended) drove all those fundamentalists in the GOP absolutely crazy!
The HATE EMAILS for Obama are spreading like wild fire.....please stop these email.....One I received to day is a scare for the elderly on a fixed income.....Telling them that you have to have your SS directly deposited and when you do the bank will be forced to cLharge you a 1% charge..... Just a little lie......they didn't make it 10%!
FALSE....easy to prove.....but of course they want to believe and spread the lie. Just google and send back to the sender......
http://www.snopes.com/politics/taxes/debtfree.asp
Today, for college $2000 is not much to get as help. We in New Mexico use the money raised from our state lottery to finance and give scholarships.... We only take the money to those people who want to give it away.....I admit I don't play the lottery.
So you get charged 1% before or after you go to the death panels and are forced to join the communist party by a band of kenyan ACORN workers who will also take your bank account and give it to the people in the projects along with free crack?
That pretty much sums up the "FACT FREE" GOP tale for 2012.... Be afraid..... Boooooo.... Obama is coming to get you and all others "soon to haves" What a ridiculous line, the GOP can't win on the facts, so they do what they do best, conspiracy theories, slogans and lies.
TM, why give it to college students who want to actually become snobs by going to college when you can give it to job creators with accounts in the Cayman islands!
Newt first steps on the Moon, Its one more state for the U.S....One more WHAT Donald!
Trump? What are you doing hear?
Looking for Alice!
Crap! Our whole area is under a tornado watch until 9:00pm tonight. Looks like we are in for a rough weather evening!
Stay safe there!
Just got a warning from the NWS that a severe storm is heading right for our county. Golf ball sized hail, high winds and torrential rain, flash flooding. I bet we lose our power if not worse.
Nanette, You all batten down the hatches and stay safe. The weather here is unbelievable! Its so warm. Southern Ohio is under Tornado watches. Talked to my friend in Missouri., they heard the sirens and made there way to basement. They are okay but was damage around them. Bran son sure got hit hard. Hope we here from you and if power dose go off, Please let us know when you can that you both are okay.
Pam we are fine. It was a strong storm with high winds and very heavy rain. I was really thankful that we didn't get the hail that we were warned about. We had a hailstorm several years ago that even ripped the siding off of houses, destroyed roofs and busted out windows and totaled cars. Our power went out for a few minutes during this storm today, but thank goodness it came back on rather quickly. I haven't heard of any damage in our immediate area. We are still under a tornado watch until 9:00pm though. I hope we don't get anymore storms today.
In what state can you go to a university for FREE????
This has already been tried, in New York City back in the 50's-60's-70's you could go to NYU for free.
Then the city ran out of money by 1976 and was bankrupt.
It's amazing how many people believe in the tooth fairy and Santa Clause. Question, just about every major city in the country has been run by democrats for decades, why then has nothing changed for the poor?
Liberals are blind to that fact. It's "tax the rich more" that will solve all our problems.
It's better to tax the homeless just the way Allen Wests wants... You guys need to understand poor people are also Americans.
I agree, they always want others to pay for the handout programs. I doubt that any of them are kicking in any xtra $$.
.... I bet I've seen you here before, under a different ID of course.
Tax the Greedy!!! Not the Needy!!!!!!!
The only way to help people is by EMPOWERING them, not ENTITLING them.
how does the poor improve their life if they are making it harder to go to college? it is also another attack on the middle class who are struggling to survive..Florida legislators just shot down an effort to get them to pay more for health insurance..including Gov. Scott..they pay $8.34 per month and $30.00 for the family..rank and file state workers pay $50.00 a month and $180.00 for family coverage..more inequity..FL is controlled by Republicans..
I always think about the student who graduates with $50,000.00 worth of debt
who comes from a family of modest but not poor means and another student in
the same course of studies who got a full ride because he or she fit into some
pre-determined guidelines who graduates debt free. Would it not be fair to bill
the full ride student for the education received like the same $50,000.00 debt
incurred by the student who had to pay his way. I'm sure someone out there can
set me straight.
If the GOP's true intention was to motivate the students not to finish the course, then maybe they should have put forth a requirement to finish or payback the grant. But what they did was simply end a program that helps the less financially capable because that is simply their national agenda. Republicans would be happy to do away with the entire public education system, higher learning not excluded. They deserve to be voted out in a cross country sweep of the Republican Party.
funny people dont think that anything needs to be paid for. when asked they just say tax the rich more...its easy to pawn financial problems off on to others when its not coming out of your pocket. i cant say honestly say as someone who just graduated a year ago, that 80 percent of people in college didnt deserve to be there, and if the less fortunate want to go to college they need to persue a 4.0 GPA, they dont derserve it simply because they finished high school....i learned early in life that NOTHING is free, and everything needs to be paid for....where does it end, free cell phones....free health care.....free govt housing....free college....i bet you people want the govt to pay your car payment too
"i bet you people want the govt to pay your car payment too."
LOL well i dont have a car payment, but it sounds like you know something about this could you share? thanks.