Keep funding the future

I bid cheer and courage to my fellow citizens and ask you to urge our elected officials to roll back their proposed cuts to higher education in Washington. We absolutely need to invest in higher education, both to mitigate the current recession and to prevent imminent catastrophe in the future.

While the current financial crisis is certainly devastating, it is paltry compared to the crisis we will face in coming years. Over the next few decades, the baby boomer generation will move from the work force to retirement. They are predicted to live longer than any previous generation and will require enormous social spending. Our 24- to 35-year-olds are not only fewer in number, but also have less education and earning potential than the members of the boomer generation that they will have to support.

Unfortunately, the proposed budgets from Olympia force our universities to turn away potential students just when our long-term survival depends on our ability to produce as many highly educated citizens as possible. These cuts threaten to place us on a downward spiral of lower education, lower wages and lower quality of life. Please ask your elected representatives to invest in Washington’s future by supporting higher education.

Terrance MacMullan

President, Faculty Organization

of Eastern Washington University

Spokane