In Nevada, hurting from major financial problems, higher education funding is turning out to be something of an issue in the gubernatorial election. According to an article by Ray Hagar in the Reno Gazette-Journal:
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Rory Reid [far right] unveiled his plan for higher education Thursday at the University of Nevada, Reno, telling students that he would not allow the state’s higher education budget to be cut if he is elected.
Reid, however, would not sign the Nevada Education Protection Pledge…. “Let me look at it, but generally speaking, I think pledges are gimmicks that I try to avoid,” Reid told Stiteler. “I am going to say what I am going to do, and then I am going to do it. I don’t think I need to put pen to paper for you to know that I have a history of keeping my commitments, and I just made one.”
Reid, the son of U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, currently trails Republican candidate Brian Sandoval by 14 points. Sandoval, a former judge of the United States District Court for Nevada, has not announced what he plans to do about Nevada higher education if elected.
Not cutting higher education is a significant pledge, but policymakers have already sliced college funding, if not to the bone, at least to the tendons. Is Reid actually planning to give higher ed more money?
Neither candidate has signed the Nevada Education Protection Pledge. Politicians who sign that document promise “to the taxpayers of the state of Nevada that I will oppose and vote against any and all efforts to decrease funding to higher education….” [Image via]
