Considering the schilling that the Washington Post has been doing for the Bush Administration in their editorials (and blogger hirings, and Bob Woodward), I thought I would share two great editorials from a newspaper that is one of the national leaders in liberal opinion pages. Both editorials appear in today's edition.
The first editorial touches on a subject extensively covered by bonddad: Higher education, and the associated debt.
The second calls out the GOP on blatant "bread and circus" tactics: inefficient tax rebate just before the November elections.
More below the fold.
The first editorial discusses how students seeking jobs essential to Americans, such as social workers or educators, are choosing other fields in order to be able to pay off their education debts.
According to a recently released study, up to 40 percent of college graduates have too much student debt to manage on a starting teacher's salary. The State Public Interest Research Groups (PIRG) found that high student debt means many students cannot afford to take jobs in either public teaching or social work. These are critical jobs, but they do not pay enough to overcome the financial burdens that many graduates had to incur to get through college.
The editorial does a great job of explaining the 'why' and what would have to be done to make college as affordable as it was in the mid 70's.
This has happened because during the past 20 years, student loans have supplanted grant aid as the primary way to finance higher education. In 1999-2000, the average student-loan debt for a full-time, four-year student was nearly $17,000, up from $9,200 six years earlier. In 2004, two-thirds of all graduates left school with student debt, compared with fewer than one-third in 1993. Interest rates have doubled since 2004, meaning graduates have to devote twice as much of their paychecks to paying off the loans.
State funding of public universities has decreased, and earlier this year Congress cut student aid by $12 billion. And it is now more difficult for students to work their way through college. According to some estimates, if the ratio between minimum wage and college tuition were the same as it was in 1975, the minimum wage would have to be $22 an hour.
The second editorial calls out the GOP on obvious campaigning with Minnesota's meager budget surplus.
Give state House Republicans a $300 million pot of one-time money to spend in an election year, and what do you get?
Checks in the mail to all the state's homeowners, a few weeks before the election. That's what leaders of the House majority, entrusted to determine the highest and best use of public resources, suggested Monday for a nonrecurring $317 million "tax relief account."
It doesn't take a cynic to question whether this proposal is intended to advance the common good or Republican reelection prospects.
The editorial then goes on to discuss ways in which the money might be better spent rather than just giving everyone in the state a $200 check.
The only thing keeping the Star Tribune from becomming a top-tier national paper is its lack of investigative journalism, instead printing alot of wire stories.
If papers were judged by editorials, however, the Strib would probably be one of the top 5 liberal papers in the country.
Some other examples from the past few days:
April 8: Editorial: Restore support for pre-K classes
April 7: Editorial: Convert 'fee' to a 'tax' in order to save it
April 5: Editorial: Stop another Rwanda: Send aid to Darfur
April 5: Editorial: DeLay will leave House worse for wear
April 4: Editorial: U.S. lacks troops for wars of liberation
They have a local slant because they're a local/regional newspaper, but the messages can be applied nationally.