Apart from the stories detailed by fellow Valley of the Sun-based Kossack Mother Mags about the Arizona GOP's
1) Efforts to annihilate worker representation from the state's public sector
2) AND curtail public input wherever possible (except in the case of lobbyists the actually write the laws) and cement a full scale merging of government and business (i.e. corporatocracy and crony capitalism)
3) AND (Courtesy AARP AZ) implement a "Rule 38" to force acceptance of a Taxpayer's Bill Of Rights without legislation
- there is now a new(ish) weapon that Republicans are hoping to use to once and for all "win" the class war.
Do students pay too much out of pocket for college, or not enough?
Not enough, according to a recent bill submitted in the Arizona Legislature. House Bill 2675 would require full-time students who aren't athletes or merit scholars to pay at least $2,000 a year toward the cost of their education.
Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/...
Republican John Kavanagh of Fountain Hills, an exclusive community just east of Scottsdale, is the brain behind this bill purporting to introduce "fairness" to the college tuition system.
Last February, ASU President Michael Crow created a stir among legislators when he told a House committee that nearly half of ASU students pay no tuition at all. Crow was referring to a specific group of students: full-time, in-state undergraduates who in the 2009-10 school year received enough money in grants and scholarships to effectively offset the price of tuition.
Crow's comment caught the attention of Rep. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, who this month introduced the bill that would make full-time students pay at least $2,000 toward their education. The amount would be prorated for part-timers. The bill could affect thousands of lower-income students.
In tough financial times, "giving away free university tuition to those other than academic or athletic scholars is bad policy and an unnecessary burden on taxpayers," Kavanagh said Friday.
...
"The only thing this bill does to poor students is it requires them to take out loans," he said.
"Given the fact that universities are continuously bragging that people with college degrees earn a half to a full million dollars more in their lifetimes, I don't see how starting off on this more lucrative life with an $8,000 loan is going to hurt anybody."
A classic "let them eat cake" line, no?
Kavanagh was also involved in the FAIR Trust scandal that plagued the recently completed redistricting process- going so far as to send his family members to testify on the composition of his district (he technically wasn't letting the IRC know where he lived...).
The common refrain from conservatives is to get a better job, get a better education, and pull yourself up by your bootstraps. Its quite simple to see that once people do start advancing themselves, the bootstraps (or ladders) are pulled out.
I GOT MINE, SO FARK YOU
Cementing the elite social structure, "conserving" the wealth in the hands of a few.
For anyone confused as to what the Republican end-game looks like for America, look to Arizona. They won't stop here.
8:11 AM PT: By merit scholars, Kavanagh most likely means recipients of the National Merit Scholarship (http://en.wikipedia.org/...). Other merit scholars, even those presumably on state-funded grants, will not be exempt (as they are "free-riders")...